Home Pastors Articles for Pastors Problems the USA Is Facing Today…and Our Hope for the Future

Problems the USA Is Facing Today…and Our Hope for the Future

“What is the matter with the world?” Martyn Lloyd-Jones asked. “Why war and all the unhappiness and turmoil and discord amongst men?…there is only one answer to these questions—sin. Nothing else; just sin.” It’s common to blame the world’s problems on lack of education, opportunity or resources. If only we knew more, we’d surely be better. No. Our most basic problem is just…sin. The world is inhabited by people like us, sinners in need of redemption, who need the grace of God not just once, but each and every day.

I realize how negative the list is, and my comments that followed it. But it doesn’t mean I’m not hopeful for the future. True, many things going on in the United States and in the world around us are discouraging, but because of the gospel, we can be filled with godly hope: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). As believers, our ultimate hope is God’s promise that because of Christ’s redemptive sacrifice, the day is coming when all that is wrong will be made right. That’s the blood-bought promise of Jesus!

Reveling in God’s sovereign grace, Spurgeon said, “Cheer up, Christian! Things are not left to chance: No blind fate rules the world. God hath purposes, and those purposes are fulfilled. God hath plans, and those plans are wise, and never can be dislocated.”

If Spurgeon saying “Cheer up” seems naïve, remember someone else—Jesus—said it first: “I have told you these things, so that you can have peace because of me. In this world you will have trouble. But cheer up! I have won the battle over the world” (John 16.33″>John 16:33, CEV).

So what the world’s thirsty people need is for us, as Christ-followers, to reach out our hands and extend to them, as cold water, Christ’s offer of citizenship in another world, a coming eternal home described this way at the Book’s end:

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (Revelation 21:3-5).

*If you’d like to read more related to the subject of evil and suffering, see my books If God Is Good and The Goodness of God. Many people have also handed out the If God Is Good booklets.  

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Randy Alcorn is the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries (www.epm.org), a nonprofit ministry dedicated to teaching principles of God’s Word and assisting the church in ministering to the unreached, unfed, unborn, uneducated, unreconciled, and unsupported people around the world. Before starting EPM in 1990, Randy served as a pastor for fourteen years. He is a New York Times best-selling author of over fifty books, including Heaven (over one million sold), The Treasure Principle (over two million sold), If God Is Good, Happiness, and the award-winning novel Safely Home. His books sold exceed ten million copies and have been translated into over seventy languages.