Have we become a Romans 1 nation?

There's some scary stuff in the Bible, and I'm not just talking about the book of Revelation. At least with Revelation, I can't really even fathom the scariness. I have no frame of reference for the sun becoming black as sackcloth or horses with heads like lions breathing smoke and sulfur. It sounds plenty scary, but I can't even imagine it.

It's the things I can imagine that are truly scary to me, like Romans 1. It's not hard for me to imagine a nation full of people whose thinking has become futile and whose hearts have become foolish. One wrong click on the internet and I can see "the degrading of their bodies with one another," "shameful acts," and both traditional and same-sex couples "inflamed with lust for one another."

I don't have to look far to find people who are "full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice." "Gossips, slanderers, God-haters" abound. Turn on the evening news any given night and you see people "inventing new ways of doing evil."

But even those are not the things that scare me most. Evil is so ingrained, so commonplace, in this world that I sometimes fail to pay it any attention at all. I'm used to people who have "exchanged the truth of God for a lie." Every day I have to fight hard against doing it myself. But even that is not the part of Romans 1 that I fear the most.

I think the most terrifying words in all of scripture could very well be these: "God gave them over to a depraved mind." Or, as The Message says: "When they gave God up and would not even acknowledge him, God gave them up to doing everything their evil minds could think of." In other words, He let them do whatever they wanted, and He let them see exactly where that would lead.

I find myself praying now, more than ever before, "God! Please don't turn us over to ourselves! Please give us what we need and not what we deserve!" That is the definition of grace, and we need it now more than ever. We need His grace as we face the scariest election anyone's ever seen. We need His grace as our leaders deal with some of the most terrifying evils the world has ever known.

The only hope for a Romans 1 people is 2 Chronicles 7:14. God gives us specific instructions there in what to do at times like these: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Humble themselves and pray. Ranting and badmouthing are not humble responses to today's political situation. Lying in bed at night fretting is not seeking His face. I've done plenty of both, but what good does it do? It just lumps me in with the Romans 1 people. God, let me not be found among the gossips and slanderers. Keep me from falling into malice and strife. I want only to be found down on my face, humbling myself, asking Your forgiveness, and boldly asking that You will heal our land.

Please don't turn us over to ourselves.