God, please Bless America

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,

the people he chose for his inheritance.

                                    Psalm 33:12

Please take a moment to read and meditate upon this proclamation given by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 . . .

“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

Know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.”

This proclamation is more ominous when observed from its historical perspective. Only four years before, a prayer and revival movement swept across America. It was not a planned event with guest speakers and complicated productions. It had no schedule and began spontaneously without any time limit. It was fast-paced, Spirit-led and genuine. As the phenomenon spread, news began to spread. Newspapers reported on the meetings because of the enormous crowds. Telegraph operators discovered that similar occurrences were happening all over the growing nation. A million souls were swept into the Kingdom, including folks in the South, in both Black and White churches. People and communities were changing.

Yet, despite the blessings of a great nation in revival, America’s sins remained an open wound before God. And during the height of the Civil Ware, that is what Lincoln called us to recognize. Has anything really changed that in 148 years . . . or in 2000 years? It can change today if we repent our sins and recognize our blessings!

What does the future hold for America and other nations of the world? God only knows. We can only pray for God’s tender mercies upon us and use His blessings to sweep more souls into the Kingdom of God!

Today’s Prayer

Lord, I thank you for this great nation and for the freedom to worship and praise You to my hearts desire! Thank you for the blessings you have given me. Please open my heart and eyes that I might use your blessings to bless others. Forgive me, forgive us, as a nation under God, for our sins and for turning away from you. Give us the courage to forever turn our faces toward you so that we may clearly see where you are leading us. Amen.