Can a Nation be changed?

God has always used a refined and restored remnant to do His greatest work, and He is ready to transform our nation.

Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones, even though they are not gods at all?  Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols! (Jeremiah 2:11)
So said the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah about his chosen people, expressing his shock and horror and dismay at their abandoning of the fountain of living water, replacing it with broken and stagnant human alternatives.

Despite years of persistent prophetic warnings their stubborn refusal to turn back to the one true God, who had given them land and law, peace and prosperity, led to defeat, destruction and deportation at the hands of the ruthless Babylonians.  "Israel has become a slave, carried away as plunder." (Jeremiah 2:14)
Now in a foreign land Jeremiah writes to the people, encouraging them to seek the welfare and pray for their place of exile, because in so doing they will find their own welfare. (ch 29).  But despair is prevalent.  Psalm 137 finds them sulking rather than singing the songs of Zion, weeping by the rivers of Babylon over what was lost in the past rather than considering the possibilities of the present.

All of this took place in the 6th century BC, a period of world-wide transition from worshipping capricious, sacrifice-demanding gods such as Baal, Molech and Chemosh, to the 'softer' religions of Buddha, Confucius and Zoroaster, and later to the humanist philosophy of Ancient Greece.  So it was a time of lost opportunity; the people who had the truth pining in exile when they could and should have been proclaiming the One who is worthy of worship, who made heaven and earth, and who blesses those who turn to Him.

We could look back in condemnation, or we could consider our own situation.  Britain, along with the developed western nations, is today in a post-Christian era.  Earlier success, stability and status can all be connected to revival, repentance and reformation.  A proper fear of God led to high moral standards, stable family and community, a work ethic, compassion in our institutions, and therefore a safe and secure society.  All of this is steadily eroding as many gods are once again worshipped in our land, perhaps the most insidious being Mammon (god of money).  And we are paying the price as anarchy stalks our streets and lanes.

So what shall we do?  Moan and mope at our demise?  Retreat into dying Christian enclaves?  No way!  God has always used a refined and restored remnant to do His greatest work, and He is ready to transform our nation.  How? With ordinary people doing ordinary jobs in ordinary places, but in the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit.  
This move of God in our nation is coming from the 'grassroots', from the unnamed 'nobodies', from a people who care for nothing but the glory of God and the name of Jesus, a people prepared to pray until something happens.  And it will happen in small pockets of blessing until a tipping point of grace is reached and our nation will be transformed.

We pray the words of Matt Redman's song: 
'Can a Nation be Changed'?

• Let this nation be changed
• Let this nation be saved
• Let this nation be turned back to You
• We're on our knees
• We're on our knees again.

Be blessed today as you seek to invest every action, word and thought into the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus.



Author: John Plumb

May God bless and enrich your life

Please feel free to share this article and other articles on

this site with friends, family and others.