National Spiritual Crises

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A Call to a Nation in Need

Scripture: Matthew 12:25 Jesus said ““Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.[1](ESV)

Devotion

Our nation faces a great crisis. Greater even than the political crises that makes the news headlines constantly. The governmental shutdown is a symptom of a larger more pervasive crises. The opioid crises is another symptom of this larger issue with America. There is a full litany of slow-motion disasters that are wreaking havoc on America and indeed the world.

All of these are symptoms of a spiritual deadness that threatens to devour the nations of the world. Leaving in its wake people who can no longer tell right from wrong and indeed no longer desire to do so. Having given up on traditional religions as having no answers. They pursue what ever desire over comes them now no matter how selfish or how self-destructive it is. Leaving lonely, depressed, and broken humanity in their wake.

If something isn’t done and soon. I fear for the future generations. What to do at such a time as this? At the risk of sounding old fashioned I prescribe repentance. Just as the Old Testament prophets cried out to their nation to repent, so I cry out to this nation to repent of our evil ways. How many of our problems would disappear if we loved our neighbor as ourselves. (And we must learn to love ourselves again.)

Truly loving in this way is not easy nor does it make common sense. This love demands self-sacrifice. It insists that we tear down the walls in our hearts and learn to care for the needs of the less fortunate. We must open our lives to our neighbor in new and unexpected ways.

Only God can bring about such repentance and regeneration. Because only God can create the conditions necessary for true life to begin again. We must be born from above with a love only a loving God can provide. The secret is that God is more than willing to provide this love thru his son Jesus. This “born from above” life is not easy, but it is possible if only we will allow it to happen.

To the skeptics who say this life has been tried and found wanting. I say this life has been tried found challenging and discarded. There are many communities of faith who truly live out the life Christ has shown us how to live. Let us learn to treat each other and ourselves in a way that leads to a new beloved community.


[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 12:25.

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