Evangelist Anne Graham Lotz has encouraged Christians to refrain from being so obsessed with "garbage" in this life that they are unable to see the treasures, blessings and glory God wants to give to his people.
In a devotional shared on Wednesday, Billy Graham's daughter wrote, "One of the pictures in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is of a man bending double from his waist, sorting through a can of garbage, carefully extracting the little bits of tinsel he finds there. Behind him is standing an angel who is offering him a solid gold crown studded with precious jewels, but the man is so engrossed in the garbage he never notices the angel."
She asked, "When we get to heaven, will you and I be ashamed of our preoccupation with 'garbage' in this life - garbage that prevented us from dying to our desire for it, turning around, leaving it all behind, and reaching out for what God wanted to give us?"
"Why is it that we seem to cling so tightly to what we want, and in the process lose what God wants us to have?" she added. "God wants us to have power and blessing and glory. But you don't obtain it by adding Jesus to your life-He has to be your life!"
Lotz, the founder of Angel Ministries, frequently encourages Christians in their walk with Christ on her social media pages and website.
However, like her brother, Franklin Graham, Lotz also often addresses sin and true repentance, and recently suggested that God may be purposefully hiding himself in preparation for a coming judgment on the nation.
"Our nation is in a mess. Why? Could it be because America is losing God's blessing? His favor. Could our sin be provoking His judgment? Judgment that is not necessarily in the form of a nuclear dirty bomb, or another ISIS attack, or an economic collapse. But a Romans 1 judgment as God backs out of our national life and turns us over to ourselves," Lotz wrote on her website Wednesday.
She referenced the Old Testament story in which God destroyed the nation of Judah because it continued to become more disobedient and more "wicked," choosing immorality and idolatry.
"God warns a nation that judgment is coming. He doesn't want any to perish. But if a nation does not heed His warnings, He unleashes His anger and there is nothing - no one - who can prevent it. If God would judge His own beloved nation of Judah, why would we think America could escape?" Lotz asked.
"So ... if we are coming under the judgment of God - if He is giving us over to ourselves, removing His blessing, protection, and favor - the solution will not be found in politics or the economy or the military or technology," she continued.
"The solution will be found on our knees as we humble ourselves, pray, seek God's face, and repent of our sin. Then plead for Him to return to us as we return to Him."
Lotz lamented that many of the prayers and calls for repentance within the Church today are more a "rending of garments" and an "outward show to impress."
She concluded: "Only God knows those who are rendering their hearts as they seek Him. But I am led to ask myself ... how truly serious am I about seeking God on behalf of our nation? When was the last time I fasted and wept and mourned and confessed the sin of our nation as though it were my own? I believe the future of America hangs on the answer to that question."
