God Bless America
God bless America, why? Certainly not because we deserve it. Please bless us, oh Lord, because without it we can’t survive.
With so much emphasis on diversity and so little on unity we are coming apart at the very seams that formerly held us together.
God never has blessed America because of a collective virtue. Consider the following in considering God blessing us now.
What always has been is not what is always going to be. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate traits that have been stable in the past to determine if they are still basic in future planning. In evaluating the political and economic future of our nation consider some past elements embodied in what America has been.
Does the same work ethic still prevail? Are people inclined to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay? Is there ambition driving citizens to want to work for what they get?
Is personal and corporate integrity still alive? Does virtue still trump greed? Will deals cut in the dark prevail in the light of public scrutiny or long to stay hidden like vermin exposed to sunlight? Are people now inclined to be as good as their word and their word as good as they, or is the excuse of “what I meant” a harbor in the storm?
Are there absolutes based on right always being right and wrong always being wrong? Is there integrity like that evidenced by a character in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.” When offered a compromising solution in order to be delivered from prison he said: “I will stay in this prison till the moss grows out of my eyebrows before I will make a butchery of my conscious or a slaughterhouse of my convictions.”
Has public morality changed? One of the darkest days in the life of ancient Israel is described as a time when everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Have sensuality and carnality eroded our morality? Has lewd become the new cool and vulgarity the in style? Has pornography imposed on marital fidelity and led to greater family instability?
Does public education teach economics and history? Are the values and virtues of our past extolled or are vices emphasized? Are we given to excessive self-flagellation which can lead to self-defeat?
In our changing milieu will personality take precedence over policy, will character capitulate to charm? Will frugality, thrift, economy, conservation and moderation make a comeback?
Are we more given to feeding our entertainment and recreational appetites than cultivating our spiritual nature? Have our houses of worship given in to the culture proclaiming health, wealth, and prosperity rather than challenging people to live out the spiritual requirements of their God?
Pray a prayer of personal commitment, and then pray:
“God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above.”