Economic Crisis: We Need God

I have been debating on whether or not to write this post, and after some careful consideration, it’s time to put my thoughts down on electronic paper. In my opinion, this is the greatest nation on the planet, and my family and I are blessed to live here. America is not without her shortcomings, but what nation doesn’t have faults and failures? You just won’t find one.

It is no secret, this world is in a financial mess; actually, that’s not all, but this is the subject I want to pay particular attention to in this post. Markets are frantic all over the world, and people are nervous about their future. Multiplied millions on this planet are starving to death on a daily basis, and chaos seems to be the norm. Wars have been waged over financial matters, both real and imagined. Nations have fought one another in order to acquire more and more land. I could go on, but you get the idea.

For many years now, this great nation of ours has taken the self-reliance stance, implying we don’t need anyone to help us because we are America. Thank God we are America. Thank God my family and I are privileged to live in this land of opportunity. We are blessed beyond measure, I can assure you.

While talking to the president of a financial institution a couple of days ago, God began giving me some insight about our current economic crisis. I had called him asking for some advice regarding my retirement account, and we spoke for a good while about what the Word of God tells us regarding these present days. I am so grateful he didn’t try to pull the wool over my eyes; he was straight to the point, and I appreciated his candor.

One of the pointed questions I asked was in regards to the cause of our economic crisis. Was it related to the sub-prime mortgage agenda the Democrats pushed so hard to enact? His answer was an emphatic “yes”, but the mess it turned into is not the only contributing factor. There is something else equally as insidious, but you won’t hear much about it on the news.

What if I told you part of the problem here is plain, ordinary, life-destroying greed? As I have already mentioned, you won’t hear much of that on the news because people tend to blame their woes on someone else. I would say the majority of people never acknowledge any lack of character, and certainly don’t want to take the blame for their troubles. This reminds me a the prophet Jonah, who was commissioned by God to preach in Nineveh, but chose to travel in another direction. Jonah got in a lot of trouble for disobeying the voice of God. The result: self-invited trouble.

Let’s take a look at greed for a moment. According to Webster’s dictionary, greed can be described in this manner: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. Does that sound anything like what you see in this world we call home? Are you familiar with the concept? If we were to take an inventory of our lives, I am quite certain many of us would be able to list countless instances of greed run amok.

Where do we find greed? Where is it most influential in affecting our current economic crisis? Understand, I am not now, nor have I ever been an expert on this matter, but the following makes perfect sense to me, and perhaps it will make sense to you, too.

• Wall Street
• Banks
• Financial institutions
• Loan companies
• CEOs of large corporations
• Hollywood actors and actresses
• Certainly, we must include our Senators and members of Congress
• Realtors
• Car salesmen
• Sports celebrities
  
• The list is almost endless, so if you haven’t been included here, you’re
  probably still part of the problem

Did you notice a glaring omission? You didn’t see “all of us”, did you? I wanted this to be a category all by itself. So you won’t think I’m writing about everyone else but me, I am included here, too. If we take a look inside, it’s probably a sure thing every one of us can find areas in our lives which are tainted with greed. It’s time to do some introspection, don’t you think? It’s not a bad thing to examine ourselves; in fact, the Word of God encourages its practice. II Corinthians 13:5 declares: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Let’s take the Word for what is says: if you are saved by faith in Christ, then Christ is in you; if you are not saved, Christ is not in you. It’s that simple.

Now, let’s see what our greed looks like:

• We all want more and more return on our savings
• We demand immediate satisfaction
• We are not willing to gradually build our financial stability, we want it right now
• In many instances, we demand something for virtually nothing

Does that sound familiar? Is it something you can relate to? It sure hits home and makes me do some soul searching. If nothing else, it should cause us to look at our priorities. I’m quite sure we don’t absolutely have to own everything we see.

Perhaps the Lord is showing us how difficult things can be without His favor. This world has generally turned its back on God and have said “we don’t need God, we are perfectly capable of doing everything by ourselves.” That is a dangerous notion, but I believe it is part of the reason we are in the mess affecting all our lives. It is high time this world calls on God for forgiveness and mercy.

Our nation needs to repent from one coast to another, and from border to border. Our leaders should acknowledge their need for God’s grace and divine direction in what they do to guide us in our lives. In my opinion, this nation is in need of an old-fashioned Holy Ghost revival of repentance. Will that fix every woe this nation faces? No, but it will surely touch the heart of Almighty God, and we need Him now more than ever.