Have our freedoms been replaced with fear? – Ali Winters

Like lambs to the slaughter have we become complicit and complacent as we watch old glory die? Have our freedoms been replaced with fear? Have we become prisoners in our own homes, grazing on Cheetos and Pepsi, watching I Love Lucy and Twilight Zone reruns? Restrictions and regulations; resistance met with reprimand and reprisals…are we becoming desensitized to the ‘new norms’ being offered? Are we swallowing and following at the bidding of a pied piper, or perhaps a trouble maker? Has our complacency driven us to a place of acceptance, creating a hostile world of fear and phobia as it did in Germany; citizens followed Hitlers Third Reich; doing what they were told, refusing to see what was happening, following orders, blaming others, rejecting God?

Are we blaming others instead of looking within ourselves? Do we await the next pandemic, mandatory vaccine or extended lock-down with passivity and resignation? Have we learned nothing from history that would help us navigate the future? History past, or has it now become history forgotten?

Have we surrendered our freedoms without lifting a hand, a heart, a voice in either protest or prayer? Our hand outstretched to receive, our heart heavy from the weight of rebellion and sin, our voice silent and still as we await the unknown. Have we become as sheep without a shepherd, like lambs to the slaughter? Have our hearts been so hardened toward the gospel it has become a reproach instead of a reprieve, a bother instead of a blessing? Has 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 lost all meaning, holding no application for our lives today? Do we shun repentance and righteousness as we race eagerly toward bale outs, stimulus packages and government manipulation? Will we ever prostrate ourselves, surrender in humility and brokenness and cry out to our God; “against You and You only O God have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight. What would You have me to do O LORD, what would You have me to do?”