God Bless America

We have all heard the phrase and probably even said or prayed it ourselves, but what is it we’re really asking for?

When you say the word blessing the first thing that comes to most peoples mind is some thing or experience that results in pleasure/personal gratification fulfilling the desires of our flesh, or ego, or emotions, or all three. Most think of a blessing as getting what I want.

But, a blessing is a thing or experience that BENEFITS the one who receives it. It may involve pleasure and gratification, but it may not. It may be getting what we want, but it may not.

Jesus said, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?” (Luke 9:25 NLT)

God wants to bless us, meaning He wants to work in our life that which will benefit us, and sometimes it’s not getting what we WANT, but rather what we NEED. Sometimes it’s getting the answer we don’t want to hear.

A good friend of mine was teaching on the power of prayer and said, “Some people accuse God of not answering prayer. It’s not that God doesn’t answer. It’s that sometimes the answer is ‘No’.” It’s not what we want, but it’s what we need, and it is an answer.

Jesus tells us it’s not always to a man’s benefit to gain the whole world (i.e. get what he wants all the time), but in fact may be to his detriment.

Sometimes the prayer, “God bless so and so…” is asking God to NOT give them the things/pleasure they desire. Sometimes it is to our benefit that God says no.

Taking it a step further, sometimes the benefit is even painful. When my children are purposefully disobeying and misbehaving after being corrected they experience love in the form of punishment. I’m not out to harm them. I don’t want to inflict pain because I hate them. I want to train and help them now while the pain is controlled and minimal, rather then let them go off and destroy themselves and others with wrong living.

If this is true for the individual then what does this mean on a national level?

When we say “God bless America” we may be thinking a prosperous economy, peace, freedom, pleasure, happiness, etc. But, it may very well be an invitation for God to show his love by giving us what we NEED and not what we WANT. It may be an invitation for God lovingly withhold even the perceived good things to help us enter in to the great things down the road.

Often in our narrow and selfish perspectives on life we fail to see the destructive nature of some wants in our life. Because they seem fun, exciting, pleasurable, etc. we think they’re for us (a blessing), and yet to have it, or more of it, or other things would be a curse not a blessing.

Getting what we want all the time, always getting our way, things always being handed to us, being free from discipline/punishment and consequences are not a blessing, but rather a curse.

So, on a national level, I wonder if our request for God to bless America is being fulfilled in some of the difficult situations our country is facing. Rather than pointing fingers and blaming one or two people, perhaps we need to realize that America has been blessed with a lot of stuff and opportunities, but maybe we’ve become such a selfish people so caught up with our own agendas that God is saying, “Wake Up! I’m not giving you what you want (a life of comfort, ease, stuff, and pleasure). I’m giving you what you need.”

Maybe we NEED to learn to trust Him more. Maybe we NEED to make the things of this world less of a focus and priority in our life. Maybe we NEED to begin to think of the needs of others and not what we WANT. Maybe we NEED to focus more of our resources on building the Kingdom of God instead of the kingdom of this world. Maybe we NEED to learn to walk more in the truth, love, grace, and mercy of God.

Some might be tempted to say that America really hasn’t done anything so bad or depraved, compared to other nations, which would warrant punishment from God. But, depravity doesn’t come just in the form of immorality, although we have plenty of that to go around too. The depravity that led to Sodom’s destruction wasn’t just homosexuality, there was behavior/depravity that led up to that final straw that broke the camels back.
(49 " 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. Ezekiel 16:49-50) I don’t know about anyone else, but the descriptions “arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, haughty, and not help the poor and needy” sure reminds me of a lot of Americans.

Sure the detestable things get us in trouble too, but that’s not all.

I don’t think America is on God’s black list, but I do think we’re naive to think that asking for God to bless our country or us as individuals is always going to result in pleasurable things or experiences. God loves us and He loves us enough to bless us with what we NEED not what we WANT. He is truly out to benefit us even when it doesn’t make sense to us.

So, as we pray for God to bless our nation, others, or ourselves, let’s not put God in a box of what that will be and look like. Let’s trust that God knows best and that while we may not understand, nor even like the initial blessing, lets look for what the benefit of the blessing is.

I do want to clarify one thing… I do not believe that God is the cause of every negative or bad thing in our life. There are four sources of negative experiences… 1) We live in a broken world that doesn’t function the way God created it to, so things break down and bad things happen to good people. 2) We live in a world of broken people, so whether the bad and foolish choices of others or our own bad and foolish choices we experience the negative consequences and because we are not truly independent of others our lives affect others people’s lives for better or for worse. 3) The devil and demons are at work in our world to work death, destruction, and all kinds of wickedness, pain, and harm. 4) There are those rare occasions where a person or nations sin has reached such a point that God pours out His Judgment/Wrath. This is not as often as some would like to think and when it happens people are warned and have a chance to repent.

When I refer to God disciplining, punishing, withholding, etc in the name of a blessing I’m not talking about tragic things like birth defects, premature death, etc. I’m talking about God withholding pleasures, materials, etc that are a WANT, not a NEED.

The Test

2Corinthians 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test?

I read these words and they make me very uncomfortable.

Depending on the translation you read some have the words “examine yourself” first in the sentence while others have the words “test yourselves”, either way it’s unnerving.

Let’s break this statement down before getting to the meat.

To examine something is to make through inspection, leave no rock unturned. It’s a serious and focused look, not some casual glance.

A test is a tool to answer the question: do I know or can I perform enough to qualify. Am I really the real deal? Am I really a 10th grader, am I really a Green Beret, am I really a mechanic, am I really a follower of Christ/Child of God? Tests answer these questions and more.

We’re called to thoroughly inspect/examine our lives and to test ourselves to answer a very important question… am I in the faith.

Of coarse for some, they’ve never put Jesus in charge of their life and don’t claim to follow Him, so the answer is easy and obvious, but this scripture wasn’t written to non-Christians. It was written to followers of Jesus. This is important!

The fact we, as Christians, are told to test and examine ourselves to make sure we’re in the faith points toward a reality stated at the end of the verse… we can fail the test. It points to the reality that no matter how sincere and perfect we started out we can get off track/stray and end up outside of the faith.

Proof: Look at the story Jesus told to illustrate how the condition of people’s hearts determines their overall response to the truth of God’s word and it’s affect in their lives.

Luke 8:11-15 11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

This same story is found in Matthew 13:1-23 and Mark 4:14-20. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with all three versions of the story, because there is some details that each brings out that are worth noting.

According to this story Jesus teaches that not everyone will turn to good/ accept the word of God in their life. In fact, Jesus tells us about 25% of the people we share with will not accept it. (Hard soil along the path)

Well, 75% isn’t bad. Right? Wrong. Another 25% (Stony ground) will hear it and accept it but their commitment is shallow and because of their “what’s in it for me” attitude when hard times come because they follow Jesus they will abandon ship.

So, 50% of the people we share with, in the end, will not live for Jesus.

Well, that still leaves us 50% to respond to the truth, experience the life of God, and go to heaven! Right? Wrong.

Another 25% (Thorny ground) will believe and follow until something better comes along. They don’t cease to believe, but they don’t make following Jesus the number one priority in their life. They will focus most of their time, energy, thought, and effort toward the accumulation of things and experiencing a variety of pleasures that this life has to offer. While they believe in Jesus, it is these things that are priority to them and these things that they live for.

So, 75% of the people will be of no value to God in the advancement of His Kingdom here on earth. 50% in the big picture will not believe and live for God and another 25% believe (and may go to heaven), but produce no good fruit.

The final 25% (Good Soil) is the only soil that will actually have long-term deep commitment and will produce large quantities of fruit, thus personally experiencing the life of God and being of value to God in the advancement of His Kingdom here on earth.

Even in this final 25% there is variance from one person to the next on just how productive they will be.

I had some questions based on 3 scriptures to test themselves and examine their life with. They were: 1) Do I seek God first above all other things? 2) Do I Know God’s word, do I believe God’s Word, and do I do God’s Word? 3) Am I becoming more and more like Jesus in thought, word, and deed?

But, I want to provide another tool to test us and evaluate our lives with… this story from Jesus. WHAT SOIL ARE YOU?


It seems like it would be an easy question, but take the time to study the attributes, qualities, and characteristics of each soil, their experiences, their responses, their results.

I’ve done this study and am going to post it in the document section of this website.

I encourage you to take the time to figure out where your heart/life is in relation to following Jesus faithfully and experiencing the life He’s planned for you.

It’s important that the test isn’t made up by the ideas or opinions of some guy. Let God’s word be the source and standard of our test.

Take the test! Be honest. How are you doing? Are you all you thought and said?

You are not taking the test so you can be condemned, but so you can have an accurate diagnosis on how healthy your relationship with Jesus is, an evaluation on how well you are running your race!

The whole point of this evaluation/test is to find the areas of weakness and make improvements! Not see how bad we are and quit.

We want to know where we’re missing it and how, so we can correct the issues and really experience the life God promises us in Jesus and be all he made us to be.

God is gracious, merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love, forgiving, patient and He is on your side. He wants you to win! He’s cheering you on and believes you can do it, you have what it takes, just don’t loose sight of the fact we are all human and have weaknesses and tendencies to stray, so we’ll need to make corrections regularly.