How often have you heard, “God Bless America?”
This is a prayer we should all pray. Many of you will remember the wonderful lady Kate Smith, who made famous the song, “God Bless America,” written by Irving Berlin. Read the lyrics again.
“God, bless America, land that we love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, to the ocean white with foam. God, bless America, our home sweet home!”
This song became one of the beloved patriotic songs in our history. The lyrics seem to touch something many Americans understood, that we desperately need the blessing of God. Psalms 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation who God is the Lord …” Friends, we still need His blessings if we are going to survive as a nation.
When God blesses a nation He supplies our needs (Philippines 4:19) as we seek to love, obey and honor Him. It seems we have forgotten the Lord our God by kicking Him out of schools, our government, and our lives. When God blesses a nation, He enlarges and enriches our efforts. In the past, God has multiplied our sowing resources (Matthew 13:18-23) and the fruit of our labor which made us for the bread basket of the world and the richest nation on earth. But as we forget God’s blessing we have become one of the greatest debtor nations on earth, around $30 trillion in debt. When God blesses a nation there is a heart of great generosity, to love people, to help the poor, to send missionaries around the world with the Gospel.
But America has not blessed God! We read in Romans 1:21, “For although they know God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but became futile in their thinking,and their foolish hearts were darkened.” We are systematically removing God from our lives, our culture and our country.
Yet even now, God in His grace waits and calls to return to Him. Go back and read 2 Chronicles 7:14, the path to revival . It is time we acknowledge God’s blessings to us and start again to bless Him.
Dr. David Bouler of Global Faith Ministries, Chattanooga, Tennessee, contributed this column to the Journal Review. He can be reached by email at debouler@aol.com.
