After the election, one person made this statement to me: “We are doomed.”
In a strange way, I agree with that, but not because of who our president is or is going to be. I think our nation is doomed because we worship at the altar of self rather than at the altar of the King of Heaven. This isn’t about political parties, it isn’t about “moral majorities,” and it certainly isn’t about Obama or McCain. This is about a collective group of people who have failed to give God what He is due, and I can assure you that God is not okay with that. And before someone launches into some nonsense about gay marriage and abortion being the reasons for our doom, let me just tell you this:
Shut up.
Those things are not the problems. Those things are the symptoms of the problem. We kill unborn babies because we are a nation of unrepentant sinners who are openly and defiantly mocking God’s righteousness and holiness. We are fighting a battle against homosexual marriage because we are a people who, although we knew God, we have not honored him as God or given thanks to him (Romans 1:21).
Any Christian reading this right now will be quick to point the finger at the non-Christians in an attempt to pin the blame for what’s happened to our country on them, but I think the finger should be pointed squarely at the church. Believe me, I am not asserting my innocence in any of this, because I’m just as guilty as the rest of the American church.
Ask yourself an honest question. Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (Matthew 22:37)? Before you just jump to an answer of “Of course I do,” truly examine your heart. Do you honestly seek ONLY God’s glory in everything you do? That’s the result of loving him with ALL, your will shouldn’t matter anymore. Now, at this point, you may feel confident enough to point out that we’re not perfect, and we won’t ever be. And you’re right, but that doesn’t make God’s expectation any less. He deserves our all, but that’s not where he leaves it. He DEMANDS it, and anything short of it is denying God what he is owed.
The world is full of sinners, and we cannot expect them to act any differently. God has given them over to their sinfulness, and they are dead. We should love them as we love ourselves, but we need to recognize that no matter how much you clean up their actions, if their hearts are dead it does no good. As Christians, on the other hand, our hearts have been made alive in Christ, and we know better.
If our country is under judgement, it’s because of the church’s pathetic excuse for worship and surrender. So ask yourself: are you part of the problem, or are you giving God all you’ve got? If you’re not giving all you have, then you’re not giving enough.
Church, it’s time to step it up.
Soli Deo Gloria
