Breathe on us, O God!

Daily Reading: Daniel 5

The God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. (Daniel 5.23)

Devotional Thought: One evening a few years ago, my wife and I met some folks at Bethel Nazarene Church to pray.  It was election season, and our conversation went to Democratic and Republican politics.  We quickly concluded that our hope in America was not in getting a male elephant or female donkey into the White House.  Our hope was not in the judges whom that next president would appoint.  Our hope was not in any body politic.  Our hope for America was to be found in Christ alone!  “The government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9.6).  This country is in a mess precisely because we have forgotten the ways of the Lord, ways of justice and mercy, ways of righteousness and holiness, ways of honesty and integrity.

In Daniel 5, King Belshazzar was one of those politicians who forgot the ways of the Lord.  He, for whatever reason, decided to mock God and treat the things of God with irreverence.  A hand appeared in the banquet hall and began writing on the wall!  Daniel (prophet of God and advisor to the king) was called.  Daniel courageously told Belshazzar what the real problem was: “The God in whose hand is your breath... you have not honored.”  Belshazzar quickly changed his tune, promoting Daniel in a desperate attempt to save himself.  But it was too late.  The die had been cast.  The matter had been settled.  Belshazzar had “been weighed in the balances and found wanting.”

What about us - the U.S.?  I believe that an honest look at history would show that God gave America breath as we followed his ways.  Let us return to those ways and to our God!

Prayer: Breathe on us, O God!  May your Spirit once again move across America, bringing a third Great Awakening. May the work of revival begin in my heart, in my family, in my church.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 68.1-10

1  God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him!

2 As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God!

3 But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!

4 Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him!

5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

6 God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

7 O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah

8 the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

9 Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad; you restored your inheritance as it languished;

10 your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.