Well, we have yet another variant of Covid on our hands and already people are looking to the government for help. The media is already in full hysteria mode, to the point of demanding that the military force vaccines on everyone, and the Australian government is putting its own citizens in quarantine camps, which is not concerning at all. Travel restrictions are already being put in place by multiple countries, again, and Austria is already bringing back draconian lockdowns. It’s starting to feel like we’re still in 2020, with Biden already holding the threat of lockdowns over us if we don’t get our vaccines and boosters (however many of those we need) and wear our masks like good little serfs. Why does it feel like 2020 never ended? Because the government cannot save you.
Our ongoing problems both with Covid and the economy are the result of the prevailing belief in our society that the government can fix all of our problems, if we just get out of the way and let them do it. We’ve seen this, of course, with Covid lockdowns, vaccine mandates and masking orders being crammed down the throats of an increasingly unwilling populace not just in the U.S. but globally. We’ve also seen it in the economy in the form of stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits giving people free money to stay home, and with the Federal Reserve printing money to buy billions of dollars in assets to keep interest rates artificially low and stock and real estate prices artificially high. Conservatives decry the loss of our liberties and the devaluation of our currency, but few if any target the root cause of these problems, which is the expectation that the government will fix your problems.
Conservatives don’t challenge programs like Social Security where the government tries to fix the problem of people getting old and not being able to work any more. Likewise the government tries to fix the problem of college being expensive, by guaranteeing student loans. The government tries to fix education with state schools that will parent your children for you. The government tries to fix poverty with unearned handouts through the welfare system. They even try to ‘fix’ the agricultural system by buying portions of farmers’ crops to keep prices artificially high. None of these things fall under the government’s God-given mandate to punish evil and reward good. All of these programs come from our belief that the government can fix our problems and take care of us better than we can. We have trained ourselves to rely on the government to protect us from suffering and difficulty, rather than taking responsibility and trusting God with the results. We have become like Israel in Isaiah 31:1,
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
And rely on horses,
And trust in chariots because they are many
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!
It is time to stop relying on the government, and start relying on God. The government cannot control Covid, as the emergence and spread of the Omicron variant, in spite of government efforts, has proven. God does, and always will, control Covid. The government can’t even fight inflation effectively, but God can provide for you even if the entire economy implodes. The government can’t save you, but God can.
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Applied Christianity 