We’ve spent the last week celebrating the unique freedoms that we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America. With all of the internal problems we’ve had over the last several years, we are still the greatest and freest nation on earth. Yet, we have seen those freedoms slowly eroding over the last few years.

In the face of these eroding freedoms, Christians have been praying for God to intervene and restore us. We’ve prayed and prayed, but the erosion has continued. In spite of calls for reform, we have devolved from a slow drift away from God to a fast track of rebellion into godless selfism. Our prayers have gone largely unanswered because we are praying for the reformation of the wrong people. We’ve prayed that our “leaders” and our “country” would turn to God, when we should be praying for the group most in need of spiritual reformation – us, me, you.

As our churches have celebrated our freedom to worship, many believers have exercised their constitutional right to NOT worship, but to go someplace else. As we fight to defend our freedom of speech, we fail to use that right to speak freely of Jesus to those with whom we work, play, shop, and live. We bemoan the loss of freedom to pray publicly, but we neglect private prayer on a regular basis. Jesus remains a part of our lives, but He is not preeminent. (Colossians 1:18)

We have squandered the freedoms God entrusted to us. He has told us in His word, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” – Luke 12:48

It is time you and I recommit ourselves to a radical obedience to God and His Word. The time is here for us to once again recognize that God comes first and to put away the idols of play that we have erected in our lives. It is time to ask the difficult question: what have I done with the freedom God has given me?