By Kelly Cilano

When I first got my glasses, I was amazed at what I could see at a distance. “Wow!” I couldn’t help remarking to my mother. “I can see the leaves on the trees from here!” I saw the green, before. I knew the leaves were on the trees. But to see them from a distance, distinctly, clearly, was an overwhelming and exciting experience. Of course, my mother felt great guilt over my discoveries because I was so adapted to my blindness and she had never realized how blind I was. It was my teacher, Mr. Schmidt, that noticed and suggested I go for an exam.

The human race has the same problem. We are definitely blind to our sin yet we fight our Teacher’s suggestion. As a Christian, do you feel responsible for the problems that face this nation? I’ll be honest: I didn’t. I didn’t feel that I could do anything about it, and besides, it’s prophetic. There is no Western Kingdom mentioned in the book of Revelation, so if this is what is going to happen, I guess I’ll already be raptured and out of here. All the better, right?

Wrong! Jeremiah constantly prayed for Israel. He constantly repented for them, not for his sin but for his nation’s sin. Do you do that? Aren’t we called to do that? Christians have no shortage of complaints about this country – and I’m first in line on this. Yet, are we repenting? Are we repenting for the abortion holocaust? Maybe you didn’t have one, maybe you don’t know anyone who did, but you do know it is wrong. You do know it is sin, and that you are living among the effects of that sin, and that the only way to change this situation is to repent. Our political process is in dire straits, greatly endangered if you understand what you are looking at. Yet, is calling your senator or complaining to your friends the only thing you can do? No. Again, God calls us to repentance.

2 Chronicles 7:14 says: “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, forgive their sin and heal their land.” Christian, do you know that you hold a nation in your hand? Can you see the whole picture? We need to pray for the unsaved; we need to repent of our blindness to our apathy, and our self-centeredness, and pray for those who are still out there in this late hour. We need to repent for the condition of our country, because whether we realize it or not, God didn’t save us just to pray for our loved ones and our personal situations. We are part of a bigger picture. We, as Christians, affect our world. If you don’t know that, wake up! The enemy who hates you does know it.

Your prayers are more than just words, your worship is more than just song, and what you do affects more than just your circumstances. As a new Christian some years ago, I often wondered what the saying “Bless God” meant. I just didn’t really think it was possible because of my limited understanding of what blessings were. I always thought of blessings in the tangible, meaning I could touch, hear, or see them. After all, what can you do for Someone who owns the cattle on a thousand hills? When we look at sin, we think of it as evil or bad things that we do. That isn’t incorrect, but it is a bit short-sighted.

Sin is like dye. It permeates everything it touches and it’s inherited, so it is all-encompassing. We don’t take a breath without it. It’s a part of us just like our gender. There is no getting away from it, at least not on our own. That is why we are destined for hell. We by ourselves, just newborn, are irreversibly damaged goods. That is why we don’t have to choose hell, it’s a ticket that is already paid for, and it’s just the next stop on the human condition train. Sin doesn’t go away because we do good things. No. That may just mean that we have been trained well. There are many people who don’t go to prison, don’t cheat on their married partners, don’t lie openly, steal, take drugs, and all the other awful sins you can think about that in your opinion deserve hell. They may even be better-behaved people than you. It really doesn’t matter.

As it says in Romans 3:10, “There is none righteous, no not one.” Sort of sums it up, wouldn’t you say? The one thing that changes our sinful human condition is repentance. Repentance means to turn away from, but do you also know that it means to do it with commitment? Yet the only way we can do that is to mean what we say from our hearts. I have seen lots of kids who are strung out on drugs and they think they want to quit, but what they really want to do is just get out from under the demand – the hold that the demon drug has on them – and all the consequences that come from that. They don’t see that their problem is a heart problem. They still want their rebellion. Essentially, they still want their old life, but without the consequences. They may even get free of the drug, but they don’t really want the change.

We were created to worship and serve the living God, but because of sin, we live in deception. We think we are happiest when self is on the throne, and we don’t realize that when we are serving ourselves and calling our own shots and being a self-made man or independent woman, we are doing nothing but worshiping Satan. He doesn’t care if we do good works or are bound by drugs. Nothing matters as long as we don’t cross that boundary line: Repentance. Repentance from the heart involves a total life change. It involves your entire being. Repentance turns God’s face towards us; with it comes forgiveness, mercies, and blessings that extend into our lives and the lives of others. When I first got saved it was like my eyes were unmasked and my ears were unplugged. 

God loved King David because he had a repentant heart. God appeared to King Solomon by night and acknowledged his prayer for the Temple and the nation of Israel, yet he also knew His people. That is why he gave King Solomon those famous instructions we quoted above from II Chronicles 7:14, for a time when Israel would be carried away for worshipping false gods. He knew that even though the nation as a whole wouldn’t repent, the remnant would. The consequences of captivity in Babylon still came, but because of Jeremiah and the remnant’s repentance, the mercies and blessings did come, and they are still coming.

We may be gone soon, and there will be many loved ones left behind, but our prayers will be their covering. Our God is faithful. Are we?