Psalm 144
Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD! (v. 15b) Although I cannot identify the source, I have heard it said that the USA has been particularly blessed by God because we have a history of being a Christian nation. I can’t say that I disagree with that statement and verse 15b supports that idea, but it can easily be argued that we have an awesome natural endowment for agriculture and for industry, in addition to being separated from other mighty nations by oceans on our east and on our west. Still we have been blessed. Which brings me to my main point – as we see our country more and more turning away from God, becoming a whole lot less “Christian”, what happens to that blessing for people whose God is NOT! the Lord. Whose god is wealth, money, power, … Are we looking at hard times ahead? I’d love to see an e-mail discussion on this verse and on our nation’s challenges ahead.
Interestingly, I read an article from the New York Times, where the headline reads, “2022 – The Year We Lost It.” The gist of the article is how we, as a nation, have lost our civility; whether through “road rage” or other outbursts, like unruly behavior on airlines. Tempers have flared like never before. Even on TV just now, a white woman starts screaming at the black man in the stands beside her at a pro football game. He, to his credit, did not react negatively, but just stood quietly and took her shocking rage-filled screaming and taunts. Blame it on the pandemic, blame it on the inclusion of radical rhetoric in our nation’s political arena, or blame it on whatever, but we, as a nation, have begun to act out like little children with temper tantrums.
Archbishop Beach’s “A Word From The Lord” today, urges us to “lead the Nation in a return to God, or suffer the consequences.” Fred, I think maybe the hard times are here, and we have only ourselves to blame. It is not too late to mitigate the destruction; we must seek God’s help and deliverance, but also as the Archbishop suggests, we must take responsibility, where we are able, to lead our nation back to Him. It starts with each one of us.
This season always reminds us of that hope. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.
Good point Tom. I believe we are slip sliding down a slippery slope. Blaming others for our misfortunes is a falsehood many believe because they don’t have The Truth. We as Christians need to first look inward and confront and confess our sins and look how we handle adversity. Do we accept responsibility for our wrong doing? Or do we vocalize our innocence and blame society or even God?
Our family and others are watching us and may come to the wrong conclusion on how to react to adversity by our actions. 30 years ago I was pulled over for a traffic violation because another driver and I were in a road rage battle. I was furious because this driver had been harassing me (cussing, screaming, and honking) for awhile because I wasn’t going fast enough for her. We got to an intersection and the road split into 2 lanes. The left lane was for left turns only. She flew into the left lane so she could get past me. I was angry and sped up so she couldn’t. A cop was nearby and witnessed the whole thing and turned on his lights and sirens. He only pulled over me. I was so angry I couldn’t talk to the cop. He said to me the most important statement. Melissa was in the car with me. He said “I pulled you over because I want you to look at your passenger. She will be driving soon. Do you want this to be how she will drive?” Melissa was 13 at the time. Wow! I had been so focused on how awful that other driver was that I forgot she was watching this whole fiasco unfold. Anger, my rights are violated, etc., these thoughts take our focus off Jesus and cause us to sin against our brothers and sisters.
As Christians, we are called to love our neighbors even when they are acting badly. The most important thing is for a long time I thought I had to do this myself. I had to change myself. God wants us to see ourselves as the flawed creatures we are AND to ask Him to transform us. To make us aware of our behavior and ask for His help. Dallas Willard made a point in his book, Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice, that when we find ourselves or others allowing our human nature to guide us rather than Christ, we need to stop and reach out to Jesus to guide us.
Sorry so long winded.
Well put!
Beautiful, Courtenay. Thank you!