America, Bless God


One of the songs that were sung during many of the remembrances this past weekend was Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Last year Karen and I were in Foley, Alabama and saw a bumper sticker that rang true to our hearts: “America, Bless God.”

As a nation we are facing tough times. And like so many American families across this land, many of the tough times are self-inflicted through a materialistic worldview. Please understand I am not condemning material goods or wealth. What I am bringing to our attention is if our focus is on stuff, then our worldview is going to be affected in a negative way. And when we go through tough times such as we are now, we focus on what we are losing or may lose and not on what we have.

For those of us who are born-again Christians we have much for which to be thankful. And as I wrote yesterday, without knowing new poverty numbers would be released by the Census Bureau, even our poor in America are richly blessed compared to many others across the globe.

Instead of us looking at our present circumstances as a terrible situation and fearing the future, we need to look to God expectantly to see what it is He is working in us. What happens when we go through tough times and trust God for the outcome? We are always amazed at how He brings us through. So it has always been with God’s people:

    “Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard, Who keeps our soul among the living, and does not allow our feet to be moved. For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment.” (Psalm 66:8-12)

When we face tough times we need to see what it is God is working through us. Could it be the man in the White House is God’s man? For a time such as this I believe so. Does it mean God approves of Barack Obama and the destruction he is bringing to our nation? Perhaps God does. I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that God has used ungodly men in the past to punish and correct His people:

    “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in the midst of this city. I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. And afterward,’ says the LORD, ‘I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.’ Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,’ says the LORD. ‘It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’” (Jeremiah 21:4-10)

There are many instances in Israel’s history that God used evil men and nations as instruments of judgment. Why? One was to punish Israel for her wickedness, but more importantly to bring a spiritual refining. King Solomon tells us:

    “For whom the LORD loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:12)

I don’t think any of us has or will face the calamity that befell Job and yet he could still say:

    “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)

God is testing America and will continue to test us and my question is: “Shall we come forth as gold?”

How will we respond in the coming year to all we’ve been through? Will we return to the God of our Founding Fathers or will we remain focused on our foundering fetishes that rob God of all He is due from us?

That is the question we need to be focused on, not who are next president will be. Because if we do not return to the Biblical principles that established our great republic, no man or 535 of them will save this country.

We are at a crossroads today in America. Which road will we take? Will we continue singing God bless America while acting as a harlot, or will we return to God and bless Him with our humility?

My prayer for my country, my family, and for me is that we would be able to say the words of the Psalmist:

    “I called on the LORD in distress; the LORD answered me and set me in a broad place.” (Psalm 118:5)

Beloved, it is up to us the Remnant.

Let us be faithful!

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2011 David Jeffers

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