O Lord Heal Our Land — E.A. Johnston

America’s Descent Into Violence and Sin

America has become the land of sudden death. The latest mass murder in Dayton, Ohio, tragically marks the 250th mass shooting in this country. In 2018, America had six mass shootings resulting in 59 deaths.

And in just the last few days, we've had four mass shootings in four different states. America has become one big killing field and it's not safe to even go outside without the fear of being gunned down by a madman.

America used to be known for its great spiritual awakenings and revival. Now she is known for being a nation of murderers who senselessly kill one another at random. It's too late in the game to continue to diagnose America's spiritual condition and search for answers to why a nation that has forsaken God has been forsaken of God.

The Holy God and the Sinfulness of Man

The Bible is replete with the attributes of a holy God and the plague of man's sinful heart. It's too late in the game to point fingers at a government that has legislated God out of the country and has legalized sin and promoted evil.

It's too late in the game to point fingers at a sleeping church that slumbers in a sad spiritual clinching on pillows of conformity and compromise. It's too late for all these things as the nation is too far gone.

Repentance and Returning to God

But it's not too late to pray, to repent, to turn back to the living God of the Bible. In 1 Kings, in chapter eight, we see the heartfelt prayer of King Solomon as he beseeches God to forgive the sins of Israel seen in beginning in verse 34.

Then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy people Israel and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee, if they pray toward this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin when thou afflictest them, then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants and of thy people Israel that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk and give rain upon the land.

America’s Need for Heaven-Sent Revival

America's ills are not related to gun control or domestic violence or psychological environmental issues but rather America's ills are due solely to the reality that America herself is ill for she is sick with sin, sick with unrepented sin, sick from provoking a holy God by flagrant perversion and sin.

America's social problems cannot be solved by man's solutions but only by a heartfelt repentance and a return to the living God of the Bible. The only thing that will keep this once great nation from total ruin is a heaven sent revival to a broken hearted people who have confessed and forsaken their grievous sins.

Intercessory Prayer and Standing in the Gap

If the spiritual leaders in the churches are too fast to sleep to lead the way in repentance and a turning back to God, then it must come from Christian individuals who are sick of the senseless murders and tired of the moral drift of the country as these individuals call out to God in prayer themselves and stand in the gap for a nation so it won't be destroyed by an offended God.

It's up to the Christian believer who is desperate enough to see revival and who is broken hearted over his own sins and the sins of the land. It's up to the Christian to bend the knee and cry out to God in intercessory prayer, crying, oh Lord, heal our land.

God’s Promise to Hear and Heal

Like I said earlier, it's too late to look for reasons why we are in the sad shape we are in as a nation, but now it is the time to seek God in prayer and call upon him and believe he will hear from heaven.

God himself declares in 2 Chronicles 7 and in verses 13 through 14, if I shut up heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

America, revival aroon.