America In Crisis

We have been blessed over the years to live in a land of plenty. Americans are, by far, the richest people in the world. Our dilemma is not can we find something to eat, but rather what shall we eat today. We live in houses with air conditoning and heat, electricity and running water. We are indeed a very rich people. We drive to the grocery in our relatively new automobiles and walk down the aisles and choose what we would like to eat for the coming week. After we have purchased our groceries we stop by McDonald's, choosing not only to have a hamburger, but we pay someone else to fix it for us. Stocked with our groceries and filled with our hamburgers, we stop by the video store to rent a movie to watch on our television.
No wonder much of the world pays little attention to our cries of economic crisis. When 53% of the world survives on 2 dollars a day, its hard for them to muster up much sympathy for us simply because our choices have been adjusted from filet mignon to hamburger (still paying for someone else to fix it for us). While much of our world truly struggles to survive and deals with life and death struggles daily, we continue driving our cars, enjoying our latte's and watching our televisions. We may have a crisis in America, but it't not an economic crisis.
The crisis that America is facing is a spiritual crisis. We believe that the world exists for our good pleasure. We have been mistakenly taught that we have achieved our success. We are the reason that America has prospered. Good ole American ingenuity got us to this pinnacle of economic success. Decade by decade we have swallowed this lie and now we believe that everything that exists, exists for our pleasure. We believe we deserve the good things in life. We have taken the luxuries of life and renamed them "necessitiies."
We would do well to remember the words of Joshua to Israel for they are powerfully relevant to America today, "I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. Now, therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness" (Joshua 24:13-14a). The crisis we face is one of our own making. We have forgotten who our God is. We have placed our trust in our own resources, intelligence, and wealth and have abandoned the God who has blessed us in the past. Christians, it's time to once again return to the Lord and place your trust in Him. Life is not about your pleasure; it's about honoring and glorifying God. We must quit crying about our economic "crisis" and take note of our spiritual crisis. Return to God and live for His glory!