How America May Be a Blessed Nation Again
By Pastor Bruce M. Burkett | September 18, 2021
The Bible says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 33:12a) This is a promise in the Word of God that the nation who places their faith in God will assuredly be a nation blessed by God. All throughout the Scriptures, we are given examples of nations who were blessed as they placed faith in God: Israel, Egypt (via Joseph), Babylon and Persia (via Daniel).
The United States of America was founded as a nation on simple faith in God. Our national motto is “In God We Trust.” We find this phrase engraved on all of our currency, written into our patriotic songs, imbedded in our pledge of allegiance and etched on the side of many of our national monuments. It was our founding father’s faith in God that afforded to us God’s blessing in raising up the United States of America in her infancy.
Our first president, George Washington, wrote, “The Man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf.” (1)
Patrick Henry, a Baptist preacher who greatly influenced our founding fathers, said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly that this great nation was founded — not by religionists — but by Christians . . . on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Benjamin Franklin once said, “I have lived, sir, a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” (2)
It was God who gave us the freedom we hold dear in this land! So, it would be good for us as a nation to remember the warning God gave us in Scripture: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). If we want to see this land we love be blessed by God once more, we must return to the foundation of simple faith in the God who has so blessed us.
Thomas Jefferson understood the balance between the love and the justice of God, especially when it came to the state of our nation: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the Gift of God. That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” (3)
Indeed, God’s justice will not sleep forever. Make no mistake about it, if we do not return to the Lord as a nation we are on a one-way track towards judgment and destruction. As President Ronald Reagan so eloquently put it, "If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” (4)
The only way America will ever be a blessed nation again is if we the people return to faith in Jesus Christ. A new president, a new congressman, or a new supreme court justice will not return to us this state of blessing. A recovered economy, new system of government or revised law will not bring about this state of blessing. God alone can bring about this blessing. And for the nation of people who determines to make Him their Lord, He promises to do so.
“1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” (Hosea 6:1-3)
Bruce M. Burkett
Pastor | Lighthouse Baptist Church | Cortez. CO | 970-565-9302 | bruce.burkett@lbccortez.org
(1) Letter to Samuel Langdon, September 28, 1789.
(2) Benjamin Franklin, quoted by James Madison in Notes on Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985), p. 209.
(3) https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/notes-on-the-state-of-virginia-query-xviii-manners/, 09/18/2021.
(4) https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/reagan-quotes-speeches/remarks-at-an-ecumenical-prayer-breakfast-in-dallas-texas/, 09/18/2021.
