God Bless America

“O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!”

This is the first verse from the song, America the Beautiful. What a beautiful song it is. So vivid in its description of our great country. Spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties above the fruited plains. How expressive a picture and to know that God did shed His grace on thee. He made America long before anyone was here and then filled it with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. A brotherhood of people from every race, creed, and religion. From beliefs and differences as varied as each amber wave of grain.

We are kidding ourselves if we think we created this country on our own. As if we are somehow responsible for all of the work, ingenuity, and creativity that built America. God has been here with us the whole time. Whether we choose to acknowledge Him or not, He has never left our side. That is something that we need to remember, recognize, admit, and accept. God will not stand for us forgetting Him forever. At some point, He will make it very clear to us who He is, the One and only God. In the Bible, in the book of Isaiah, God made it very clear to the Israelites who He was and how much He loved them, but they would not listen to His warnings, so He gave them over to their desires. They were on their own. And they wound up in captivity for 70 years.  Then because He loves unconditionally, He brought them back.

Many empires have risen and fallen and even vanished entirely since the beginning of mankind.  Their downfall was not something that happened by chance or for no particular reason. It happened because of greed, hatred, apathy, or other vices. But the most pronounced and noticeable reason is that people would not acknowledge God at all, or they tried to serve both God and the world at the same time.

In George Washington’s first inaugural address in 1789, he stated, without equivocation, that this country was only allowed to become a nation because of God Himself. George Washington knew that God was the reason for this beautiful country.

A lot has happened in this country over the last year or so. Most of it not so good. What God had intended for brotherhood has been split into many factions. Factions that have separated us as a people as we have never seen or experienced before. Brother against brother. Neighbor against neighbor. Parents against children. We have chosen sides to the detriment of others. This is not what God wants for us.  This is not what He had intended for His children.

It is not too late for us, America. God loves us unconditionally and wants the best for us. He will always accept us back into His arms, but we need to reach out to Him. He will not force us to love Him. We need to want to return to Him on our own. This decision must be our choice, to seek Him out today and put our worldly matters aside.  He is there waiting for us all, and we will be better for it, our families will be better for it, and America will be better for it.

The same grace that God shed on us, must be accepted and then extended to others, for we are not perfect people since we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.  His grace is not to be horded. It needs to be freely given to others as God has freely given it to us.

2 Chronicles 7:14 – if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

God bless you all, and God bless America!

John