Seeking a Harvest for our Land

Scripture:
Love and faithfulness meet together;
    righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
    and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
    and our land will yield its harvest.
Psalm 86:10-12

Observation: The psalmist discusses how peace will be delivered to the people, and points out that peace is based on the acts of the faithful. The faithful practice love toward others, as these go hand-in-hand. When that faithfulness exists, the righteousness of heaven sees it, and it is God's righteousness that welcomes peace - with a kiss - into the world. With this, the Lord gives what is good.

Application: We have so little that is good right now. It has even become a joke that new terrible things happen every day and we are almost numb to them. Disastrous disease is worsening and ethnic conflict kills people ... and I could list another five of six items that aren't even on everybody's radar because it is so bad here. God tells us why.

The healing of our land - of our nation - starts with faithfulness, which then calls forth love to meet together. When this faithful comes forth, then the Lord can look down in his righteousness and "give what is good", and "our land will yield its harvest."

How can we recover faithfulness in a nation so strongly turning away from the Lord? How can the remnant of believers here in the northwest influence a revival among people bent on personal causes, angry resistance to authority, and personal definitions of 'good'?

Perhaps the best we can do is be faithful ourselves, externally represent love, and hope the faithfulness of others responds to meet us. Otherwise, we are more likely to receive the curses of Amos than the blessings of righteousness.

Prayer: Lord, we are hear in modern Samaria, among a people who once believed but now establish their own gods and practices on high places, to the extent that they do not even know how to believe if they wished. Of course, they don't wish. Please give us this day the strength to shine your light of love, and in your wisdom may faithfulness simply spring forth in our communities, towns, cities, region, and nation. We are in desperate need of a turning of the tide, and of a good yield to emerge within our land. Have mercy on us, your faithful. Amen.