Modern Day Saul?

Last night our country changed. The world watched as the nation founded two hundred plus years ago on the principals of personal responsibility and freedom, recognition and acknowledgment of Divine guidance, and limited government intervention into the lives of its people elected as its forty-fourth president a man who has vowed to fundamentally transform our treasured homeland into a society that more resembles old world socialistic and communistic regimes than the land of the free and home of the brave that we have come to love and take for granted. For the first time in my life, I have been moved to tears over the result of a national election.

This heartsick feeling I am experiencing is attributed to two things. First, there is genuine sense of apprehension regarding where our new President will lead us as a people and as a nation in the coming months and years. His agenda has been made clear on matters ranging from the economy & taxation to the military & national security to moral issues such as abortion and the sanctity of marriage. None of his positions and agendas are in the best interest of our people or our country.

Second, and perhaps more sobering, is the resemblance our country has to an ancient society, the chosen people of God, Israel, who turned their back on God and clamored for a king until the Lord gave them one. The man the people chose was one who had an impressive outward appearance but who in reality was a man of great insecurity whose drive to maintain his position and keep up his image destroyed his kingdom, his family and his very life. His flagrant disobedience to the Lord and pathetic attempts to cover it up are gut-wrenching. He died broken and alone.

As our nation has turned its back on God and demanded a king, we have been given what we have clamored for. Our only hope now is that the Church will awaken from her slumber, arise to her post and pray. We must pray that the Lord will send our modern-day Saul a Samuel, one who will declare the clear and precise word of the Lord. May Samuels arise all over this great nation, boldly proclaiming truth and justice to the people of God and to our leaders. May the Lord raise up David's, men who are humble and valiant and whose strength comes from time spent in the presence of the Almighty, men who stand firmly in front of Goliath, unafraid of anything or anyone who dares to defy our God.

As David honored and respected Saul's authority, we must find it in ourselves to honor and respect the position of our new President. We may not agree with his policies and agendas, but we are instructed in scripture to pray for those in authority. We must pray for Barack Obama, his family, his cabinet, and his staff. We must continue to send up a prayer of repentance and a cry for mercy. This is a time to be alert and aware of the battle in the heavenly places as never before. It's time to rend our hearts and return to our first Love.

Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.
Joel 2:13