From the Pastor’s Heart
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God Bless America?
By Ronnie Rudd
Almost immediately after the terrorist bombings in September 2000, the slogan, “God Bless America”, was revived. I was seeing it on bumper stickers, T-shirts, banners and TV commercials. It seemed as though even those people in America who really didn’t believe in God were still seeking blessings from Him.
Today most of modern America is dominated by anti-Christian views. God has slowly but surely been systematically removed from public places in our nation. Today prayer has been removed from public schools and federal properties and humanism has dominated public policy. We really have to wonder what most people have in mind when they say, “God Bless America.”
There are so many in our country who believe that our nation’s devotion to freedom, equality, charity, justice and individual rights has somehow entitled us to be blessed with all of His great riches and comfort. There are so many in our nation who are seeking His hand without first seeking His face. It seems that as America has become more prosperous we have also become more atheistic. While so many American’s reject the God of Scripture as their Sovereign Lord, they still claim Him as their servant. For some people that is all they mean by “God Bless America.”
“God Bless America”, which was once a prayer for a divine blessing seems to be nothing more that patriotic battle cry today. How terribly far we have drifted from the God-centered nation that our forefathers established. Ungodly leaders, who have been placed in public offices by reckless voters who have failed to follow the moral leadership of God, have busied themselves to draw this nation away from God.
So is it even possible for God to bless a nation such as ours? Merely reciting the slogan “God Bless America” will do nothing for us, until it becomes a heartfelt prayer for spiritual renewal and regeneration through the gospel. The only remedy to our nation’s spiritual and moral bankruptcy must begin at the house of God. The process starts with personal repentance. If we as Christians truly want to see God’s blessings on our society, then rather than just pointing fingers at others, we must truly humble ourselves again and become examples of the true and living God.
Political remedies to our nation’s moral depravity are no cure for the underlying spiritual problems. We as Christians, more than any other, should know that our efforts ought to be focused on proclaiming the truth that can genuinely set people free. Lives, not just laws, need to be transformed before America will be in a position to ask for and expect God’s blessing. The blessings of God can not be legislated. The law of this government cannot make people righteous. Scripture is crystal clear on this: “If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” (Galatians 2:21) No one is justified by works of law, but by faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16). And saving faith is an individual matter; it cannot by imposed by legislative force.
What I am trying to say is that society as a whole cannot be delivered from moral bankruptcy unless individual lives are redeemed and transformed by the power of Christ. God has revealed in the Bible that there are several clear conditions under which a nation can expect God’s blessing. My desire as your pastor is that you and I would get into His Word and examine these conditions and challenge the people of God to lead the way in pursuing God’s blessing for ourselves and for our nation in order that we can prayerfully say, “God Bless America, Again.”