One Day or Every One?

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.


Listen to Kate Smith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2XLHyUWT94&feature=related


   Today was the National Day of Prayer, and, as I sat in church this morning, the words of this song kept playing over in my brain. It is a song that chokes me up when I hear it sung, especially by a crowd of proud Americans.


   As I thought about how much God has blessed this land and the people who are fortunate enough to live here, and He has, I thought about all the problems that beset us today. We have been blessed, but we have forgotten where those benefits come from. We have not brought them about on our own, especially those of us who enjoy them today. They have been given to us by God and bought with a price by those who have preserved them down through the years. 


   We are the recipients and the beneficiaries of a heritage that is the envy of all the world, but we so often neglect to show gratitude, first to God and secondly then to those who have preceded us. We are happy to take what we have, but remiss in our responsibilities to pass it intact to those who follow.


   It is easy for me to stand and criticize those who lead in our country, and I am often cynical about politics and government, but what should I be doing instead? Praying for all those men and women in those places and asking God to give them the wisdom and courage that they need to govern well, seems to be the least I can do.


   I am reminded again today of the verse in II Chronicles 7:14 which says in The Message:


   "If I ever shut off the supply of rain from the skies or order the locusts to eat the crops or send a plague on my people, and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I'll be there ready for you: I'll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health."


   The verse is speaking to me, and its answer to any country's problems does not hold true on just one day of the year.


   It is for each and every day, and it is for me.