Should God continue to bless us anyway?

Good morning, everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Sound doctrine, strong faith”

Our Bible verse for today: “Their condemnation is deserved!” Romans 3:8b (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Should God continue to bless us anyway?”

In Romans 3:1-8 Paul has been making the point that God’s standards are right and His judgment is righteous, and any attempt to rationalize ungodly behavior is absurd. Now Paul has come to the point that he won’t engage in this ridiculous dialogue any further because, well, because it is ridiculous. It is nonsensical and it is therefore a waste of his time.

His point was to show how it is that when people become so deeply invested in their sinful ways and so determined to justify it, they object to traditional Biblical values but without any sense of objectivity. In other words, you can’t reason with them. That’s what happened with the Jews back then, and that is what has been happening in America today. They cannot be reasoned with.

For many of the Jews in that day they had come to the point of believing they were in favor with God because of their heritage, and they believed that to be true despite how they were living. They were cultural Jews, but they were far from God. The same is true in America today. Many in our society are living far from God but still believe God is blessing America because we have a Christian heritage. Like the early Jews, those Americans may be cultural Christians, but they are living far from God.

One of my favorite patriotic songs is “God Bless America.” “God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her guide her, through the night with the light from above.” We faithful Christians often call out to God and ask Him to bless America. But I wonder if that’s really a good and appropriate prayer. Should we be asking God to bless America? I mean, considering the sinful ways of our society, does America deserve to be blessed by God right now? If we ask for God to bless us in our current condition, aren’t we essentially saying, “God, despite all the bad things we’re doing, please continue to bless us anyway.”

Now let me be quick to say that I like being blessed, and I don’t want it to stop. I like prosperity, and I like my comfortable lifestyle. I like living safely and well-protected in the strongest nation in the world and I like all our creature comforts. I like freedom. So, yes, God, please continue to bless America because when you do so, you are by extension blessing me.

But when we ask God to continue to bless us despite all the sinful things our society is doing, aren’t we then essentially asking God to enable our bad behavior? Isn’t that like a child saying, “Daddy, I know we’re misbehaving and acting like a bunch of spoiled brats, but we still want our ice cream anyway.”

Rather than praying “God bless America,” maybe we should be praying “God discipline America.” Maybe we should be asking Him to bring our society to its knees so that we will repent and change our ways. And if I’m not willing to pray such a prayer, is it possible I’m more concerned with my comfort than with God’s honor?

To some degree, our Christian heritage has become a problem for us – a stumbling block. We have been experiencing blessings we no longer deserve to have and yet we expect them to keep coming. Should God keep blessing America? I sure hope He does but I’m not sure we deserve it.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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