God is Love, so his actions are always motivated by that love, even in judgment. In Old Testament times, when he allowed wicked kings to rule over Israel and oppress them, it was for one reason, to humble them and bring them to repentance. When Israel repented and turned back to God, he relented and delivered them from the hands of their oppressors. 

When God permits the ungodly to gain power and rule over us, bringing oppression, it is an act of judgment, motivated by his love, to humble us and bring us to repentance. If we, His people, fail to repent and turn back to him, then he will allow the oppression and misery to increase with the same goal in mind, to bring us to repentance and a turning back to him…all motivated by Love.

Consider this familiar charge given to Gods people in 2nd Chronicles:

If *my* people, which are *called by my name*, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, AND turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chron 7:14).

This charge, and promise still applies today and I think highlights where the problem of a once Godly nation going astray actually lies, with God’s people who call themselves by His name. When the Church fails to be a beacon of righteousness and God’s people become complacent and ungodly, then the salt loses its savor and the light within us goes dim. As it states in Matt 5, we his people are supposed to be a city, set on a hill, shining the light to a world that knows him not. It’s not a problem of finding more novel and clever ways to “shine the light”, as it states in Matt 5:14, a city set on a hill *cannot* be hid. We are told to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see *your* good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. The phrase “good works” refers specifically to how we each personally, as God’s people, conduct ourselves in the areas of moral goodness and virtue on a day to day basis.

The charge from 2nd Chronicles has often been pulled out and dusted off in times of national crisis by Church leaders and a short period of fasting and prayer instituted to address that crisis. Once complete, it’s put back on the shelf figuring we’ve done our part and now we can move on. The problem is, this charge requires a much deeper response and suggests a wholesale change in the current course and direction of the people of God within the land that has gone astray. It states in Is 58:5 – Is it such a fast that I have chosen? “a day” for a man to afflict his soul? We are being admonished here, not to just set aside a short time of prayer and fasting, but to adopt a lifestyle of daily humbling ourselves, praying earnestly and seeking his face. It should not be foreign thing for God’s people to be on their face *daily* crying out to God, and not just to “get us through the crisis” but as a daily habit and common practice. God takes notice when a person takes their relationship with Him seriously, and gives themselves to the daily pursuit of God. If God’s people do this in large enough numbers, He hears from Heaven and he heals their land. 

It’s interesting that within this charge to God’s people he also adds “and turn from their wicked ways”. He is not here calling the heathen and unbelievers, but His own people to turn from their wicked ways.

 It is not the unrighteous who will bring a righteous reformation to our nation, it is Gods people. If we, who call ourselves by His name, are not shining examples of what it means to be a believer, in holy conduct and godliness (2 Pet 3:11) to this generation, then who will? An awakening within the Church is what is needed, and it is *always* centered, not on the unredeemed, but on God’s people who are called by His name. True revival always begins in the Church, when God’s people stir themselves up in the faith, putting aside “all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness (James 1:21)” and earnestly pursue the Lord daily with an insatiable hunger to know Him deeply and be increasingly conformed to the image of Christ, everything else is secondary. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be full of light (Matt 6:22). If the light is not shining brightly from within us, from the very core of our being, springing forth from the Holy Spirit’s inward work, then there is nothing to shine forth and we really have nothing to offer.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God (1 Pet 4:17).