Today is the 4th of July, 2017, Independence Day for citizens of these United States of America; our 241st celebration of breaking away from English rule, in our attempt to rule ourselves better than they were doing. In other parts of the world other people may or may not be celebrating a similar festivity. Canada, for instance, just celebrated its 150th anniversary of confederation, in their own establishment of independence from English rule. Yet, around the globe, numerous dictators terrorize their own subjects, while we gripe about the quirks of our own government or our leadership.
Worldly freedom is nice, affording us an attempt to try to do better in this life than our forebears did, when under the thumb of some other form of human government that they did not like. But, then, humans being are not really all that enthusiastic about being governed by anyone. Are we? Unless the system that we are in is immediately advantageous to us, it seems that no matter where people are, and no matter how well off we are, we always seem to find something about which to complain about our form of government, or the leaders who are in power at any given time in history. THAT is our true natural side showing its ugly head.
Our dissatisfaction with those in authority over us is rooted in our lack of surrender to God, to His Christ, and to His Word, for a sinful lack of gratitude toward God lies at the root of all our rebellion against those whom God has allowed to rise to power. That does NOT mean that those in authority have free rein to abuse the power and responsibility that has been handed to them. We must remember that God holds them accountable for all their actions, even as He holds us accountable. They may seem to get away with all sorts of vile things, but read Psalm 37 and Psalm 73, as well as Romans 1 and James 4, to begin to understand how we get ourselves into trouble with God and each other, and know that neither the victim nor the violator shall escape God's righteous judgment. In the end of all things, for righteous victims, God's judgment shall be a salve, while for those who violate others in any way, God's judgment shall be a scourge. We must first judge ourselves by God's Word, the Bible, and repent of our own sin, lest we must try to act as if we were sinless as we start throwing stones at other people.
In order to understand and live in true godly independence we must make our peace with God's Christ, even as the Bible says. Repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ are the simultaneous first real steps toward independence that we must take. If we reject God's call to repentance and faith in His Solution, we may live comfortably in this life, but we shall surely perish eternally tormented in the next. For those who surrender to God's government of their lives, though we may suffer all sorts of things in this life, yet, our sufferings end with physical death as we are translated into His presence to live forever in His blessings.
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