As a Zimbabwean, living in Zimbabwe, I've felt the pain we underwent for more than a decade due to our declining economy. I'm a pastor and I can tell you that even churches have been affected too.
As a family man, it pains me not to be able to fend for my family due to the price hikes. Yesterday, one of my daughter came in crying as she is unable to raise the US dollars being required as tuition fees at her college. It touched me so much as I felt helpless.
The heart of the problem in our nation today—in our lives, families, churches, and communities—can be captured and summarized in these verses found in 2 Chronicles 15:3, 5–6.
It says, “For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law…. In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands... for God troubled them with every kind of distress.”
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| Zimbabwe - What’s Wrong? (Part 1) |
The Israelites had not become atheists. Nor was their attendance at the temple down. The sacrificial fires continued to burn. Yet despite all of their religious activity, Israel had lost a correct view of the true God. They wanted a convenient God, one they could control. They wanted a kingdom without a King. They wanted a figurehead, a puppet with the trappings of kingship only. Yet any god or king you can boss around isn’t the true God, or the true King. The true God does not adjust to you. You adjust to Him.
Our culture doesn’t want the true God either. Our culture wants to pay homage only—to offer a nice little prayer before public meetings. When politicians gather, they open their meetings with prayer but afterwards they make ungodly plans. They only pay homage to God but never surrender to His rulership.
Yet any time we simply pay homage without aligning our thoughts and actions under God, we are reinforcing our culture’s false view of God as a harmless deity who doesn’t have anything significant to say about the educational, scientific, entertainment, civic, political, familial, legal, or racial issues of the day. Doing so, we seek to leave God the title of King in name only, but give His powers and authority to others, or even ourselves.
For lasting and real change, as a nation, we ought to go beyond paying homage to true worship. Worshipping God in spirit and in truth. We mustn’t treat God as a figurehead king but as our true Lord in every area of our lives. We must align our thoughts and actions to the Word of God.
I pray that our leaders, both secular and religious, walk in wisdom seeking God in everything that they do and to live a life reflective of God’s kingdom agenda.
Scripture: This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3)
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