Jerry C. Brewer
Patriotism cannot substitute for godliness, nor will it bring God’s blessings upon any people. The attacks on American soil by Muslims on Sept. 11, 2001 resulted in a frenzy of flag-waving and revived pleas across the land for God to “bless America.”
For many, that was a plea for God to grant us the freedom to continue as we have for the past number of decades, of amassing riches and pursuing leisurely lifestyles. For them, it means that God should allow us to continue taking exotic vacations to Cancun, Hawaii, Belize, or Aruba. For others, it’s a plea for God to allow us the freedom to continue slaughtering the innocent unborn. Equating freedom with “license,” they cry for God to give us the unbridled license to do whatever we please without any corresponding responsibility on our part. That just won’t happen.
Ancient Israel learned that a feigned righteousness was no substitute for genuine repentance. Rending one’s garments was an outward sign of remorse and repentance among the Jews of Joel’s day, but God refused to be moved by their outward show of repentance. His demand was, “Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God” (Joel 2:12-13).
National crises demand introspection—an inward examination of the morality, or lack thereof, that drives a people. It is futile to call upon God to bless any nation whose people are committed to the pursuit of unbridled lusts. God will bless no nation whose people do not humble themselves before Him and rend their hearts.
Americans are crying for God’s blessings upon a way of life that opposes all that is right and holy. A nation whose people have the blood of millions of unborn innocents on their hands, whose highest offices condone, legalize, and promote sodomy, and whose officials praise the pagan god, Allah, and his bloodthirsty adherents, cannot possibly hope to have God’s blessings bestowed upon it.
The remedy for America, and the only avenue to God’s blessings, is the rending of our hearts, a confession that we have condoned, promoted, and legalized evil, and a turning from it. God does not save and bless people in sin. He saves and blesses from sin.
