Can or Should God Bless America?

 Today’s America

Professing Christians seem to be obsessed with God blessing America, as the well known song tell us:

God bless America, land that I love.

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with a light from above.

How about those lyrics? Can we expect God will answer that prayer? Is there any reason He shouldn’t bless America? Consider the following:

• Americans abort approximately 1.37 milion fetuses per year, with an average 3,700 per day.

• With only 4% of Americans rejecting the existence of God today, almost 1 out of 5 Americans are skeptical about the relevance of any organized religion.

• Every 39 minutes a pornographic video is created for the internet and every second over $3,700 is spent on pornography.³

That is a sampling of what America looks like today. Is America even “blessable”? If God accepted us despite these heinous sins, God’s reputation for being a Righteous Judge would be lost. God might have to “repent “of judging Sodom and Gomorrah.

Can and Should We Expect God’s Blessing?

If we consider Paul’s frightening words in Romans 1:18-32, we have to wonder whether this paradigm of one slipping further and further away from God is somewhat prophetic of the conditions of our country.

Three times in Romans 1, it tells us “” (vs. 24, 26, 28) which can be translated or understood as “.” It indicates a form of judgment where God takes away the restraint of sin from an individual or a people, allowing them to get deeper and deeper in their sin as a form of judgment.

It is a slippery slope of sin that we see one endure in Romans 1 and it is a slippery slope the United States has been on for some time. It would certainly seem like we are already living in Romans 1:32 – “.”

So What?

What can do about any of this? Can we find our way back to being blessed? Perhaps we cannot nationally, but we certainly can personally.

First, we must repent of all of our sin(s). II Chronicles 7:14 says, “.” Blessing by God will not come without repenting by man.

Second, we should recommit ourselves to seeing the Word of God as authoritative. Asaph wrote, “” (Ps 81:11-13). Thus, whatever God’s Word says should be what I say.”

Third, embrace Christ as Lord. Paul wrote, “” (Col 2:6).

John MacArthur has said, “We have a message for America. God bless America, well He will bless America if the conditions are met. But before we can be concerned about America, we need to be concerned about those who are America, that’s us. And the way to blessing is back to the book, to know the truth of God and the God of the book, to repent of sin and to come to Him for forgiveness and new life and new capacity for obedience through faith in Jesus Christ. All the promises of God are yes in Christ. All spiritual blessings are ours in Christ.”

Salvation is offered to all but not without these conditions. God may not return to blessing our country but He will bless those in this country that live for Him.