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Is America still Blessed?

I ask myself this question each and every day. When I read this particular book in the bible it became very clear to me that we are loosing God's awesome blessings because we seem to be turning further and further away from him and his word. This grieves me to the point that I had to write about what maybe happening in America today. We are not experiencing as much of God's blessings because of our unfaithfulness and disobedience. We are becoming a society of being politically correct robots, making sure no one is offended if we happen to mention Jesus in our speech, or heaven forbid we pray in front a person who does not believe in God. This is upsetting to me, we need to put a stop to that. Now more than ever we need to stand firm in our faith and share with others the love of Jesus and the hope that comes from trusting him. As Christians we are respectful to others beliefs and in turn they need to respect us as Christians and allow us to share our faith - which is God's will.

If you recall the prophet Jeremiah, he grieved deeply because of the destruction of Jerusalem & the devastation of his nation. But in the depths of grief, there shines a ray of hope. God's compassion is ever present. His faithfulness is great. Jeremiah realizes it is only by the Lord's mercy that total annihilation was prevented. In the book of Jeremiah and then Lamentations I realize the serious consequences of sin, but we can have hope in the midst of tragedy because God is able to turn it around for good. We see the timeless importance of prayer and confession of sin. We will all face tragedy in our life, but in the midst of our afflictions, there is hope in God. We need him more today than we ever have before, if you are not a believer in Jesus maybe today is the day of Salvation for you.

Do you believe in God's judgement?

There are many lessons that we can learn as an American people, first of all that God does not tolerate sin for long, the judgement day will come, it 's in the Bible and everything God says will happen. It's so clear, but we choose to not go there or talk about it. If you do you are labeled a Christian extremist, but the real truth is that as followers of Christ, we are just being obedient to God. We are to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world and save those who are lost.

In this day and age of uncertainty as I read the book of Lamentations I can see some of the destruction and violence we are facing today, especially in some of the poor countries of the world. I too like the prophet Jeremiah and as others Christians do - cry out deeply to God and ask those hard questions such as "Why is this happening God", I cannot go another day watching the news and seeing all the deaths of this new virus take place. Then in the midst of my prayer I receive his answer - which is there is hope in God. Keep trusting him and obeying and walking by faith not by sight.

The consequences of sin!

The warnings were clear to Judah in Jeremiah's days, if they played with fire the people would get burned. Jerusalem foolishly took a chance and lost, refusing to believe that immoral living brings God's punishment. The ultimate consequences of sin is punishment (Romans 6:23). We can choose to ignore God's warnings, but as surely as judgement came upon Jerusalem, so it will come upon those who defy God. Are you listening to God's word? Are you obeying? Obedience is a sure sign of your love of God.

At first sin seems to offer freedom, but the liberty to do anything we want gradually becomes a desire to do everything. Then we become captive to sin, bound by it's "yoke". Freedom from sin's captivity comes only from God. He gives us freedom not to do anything we want, but to do what he knows is best for us. Strange as it may seem, true freedom comes in obeying God - following his guidance so that we can receive his very best. God is the comforter, but because of the people's sins, he had to turn away from them and become their judge.

Are you moved by what is going on around you?

Jeremiah's tears were sincere and full of compassion. Sorrow does not mean that we lack faith or strength. There is nothing wrong with crying - Jesus himself felt sorrow and even wept. (John 11:35). How do we react to the tearing down of our society and to moral degradation? This may not be as obvious as an invading enemy army, but the destruction is just as certain. We too should be deeply moved when we see the moral decay that surrounds us.

The people's suffering and sin should have brought them to the Lord, weeping for forgiveness. Only when sin breaks our hearts can God come to our rescue. Just feeling sorry about experiencing sin's consequences does not bring forgiveness. But if we cry out to God, he will forgive us. Jeremiah saw one ray of hope in all the sin and sorrow surrounding him. "The unfailing love of the Lord never ends, great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin a fresh every day." God willingly responds with help when we ask. Perhaps there is some sin in our life that you thought God would not forgive. God's steadfast love and mercy are greater than any sin, and he promises forgiveness.

God is faithful!

Jeremiah knew from personal experience about God's faithfulness. God had promised that punishment would follow disobedience, and it did. But God also had promised future restoration and blessing and Jeremiah knew that God would keep that promise also. Trusting in God's faithfulness day by day makes us confident in his great promises for the future. Parents discipline children to produce right behavior. God disciplined Judah to produce right living and genuine worship. We must not complain about discipline but learn from it, trusting God and being willing to change. We must allow God's correction to bring about the kind of behavior in our life that pleases him.

Before the siege of Jerusalem sights and sounds of prosperity were gone because of the people's sin. We are reminded not to assume that when life is going well, it will always stay that way. We must be careful not to glory in our prosperity and fall into spiritual death. I believe that America is going through this right now. We are experiencing a downfall in our financial system, our government and morality of the people. The more we take away God and his son Jesus from our lives - the less we are blessed.

We need to turn to our only source of Hope - Jesus!

In these times of grief, we need to turn to God in prayer. Jeremiah prayed for mercy for his people, we need to pray for America and our government. At the end of Jeremiah's prayer he wondered if God had "utterly rejected" his people because of his great anger toward them. But God would not stay angry with them forever. "You cannot stay angry with your people forever because you delight in showing mercy" Micah 7:18. This book of Lamentations gives us a portrait of the bitter suffering the people of Jerusalem experienced when sin caught up with them and God turned his back on them. Every material goal they had lived for collapsed. But although God turned away from them because of their sin, he did not abandon them - that was their great hope and ours too. Despite our sinful past God will restore America - if we return to him. Hope is found only in his son Jesus Christ, thus during this time of grief in America, we should turn toward him not away from Him.

More awesome reading!!

Collection of some of my other blogs online that may be of interest to you.
Wisdom can only come from God true or false?
This is a fascinating question what do you think is the correct answer?
There is a season for everything
We are here on this earth for a short time and God places certain people to help us through different situations. Read about this inspiring story of Mario who came into my life at just the right time.
Hello God are you there?
Doesn't it seem sometimes that when you cry out to God he isn't listening, well read on.

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A penny for your thoughts....

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this lens!!! Don't be shy.....

  • Bea63 Nov 20, 2009 @ 11:33 pm | delete
    Hey Mary that was a great lens I read it before but I didn't leave a comment because I wasn't enrolled with squidoo yet. As I was reading it I was reminded of all the trials and tribulations that I have gone through and others around me and your message is very true and very clear. Great job. We need to get together and write a book, there is something similar about the way we write. Ya ya I know I flatter myself. lol
  • mgaines Mar 14, 2009 @ 3:44 pm | delete
    I agree with you - as Christians when we are going through trials - thank God he gave us Jesus. We have the assurance that our Savior is there suffering with us and we will get through it. God will never give us any more than we can handle - when we rely on him and place him first in our lives he will not leave us nor forsake us. He may run us through some "hot" fires to refine us or to remove something that is sinful, but rest assured we will be strengthened in character because of it. Thanks for your comments - they are appreciated.
  • RobertL Mar 13, 2009 @ 8:45 am | delete
    Hello Mary, good message. Thank you for stopping by my Lens.

    As I read your Lens I was reminded of how our God is a balanced God. He does not give us candy all the time nor sour grapes. One problem we have in the Church today are the multitude of books that teach a message that is not balanced, this creates a false image of God. When these so called teachers heap all the blessing verses together, the reader gets the impression that something is wrong if they have negative things going on in their life. Those who learn from these books believe that they are climbing higher on a spiritual mountain, but the fact is, without the negative events in our lives, there are no stepping stones that lead higher and higher to a closer walk with God. While no pain or suffering appears to be a blessing, the fact is, when we have overcome through the blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony, when we have not loved this life more than we do God, we look back on the overcome trials and smile.
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mgaines

Hello, my name is Mary Gaines and my husband Larry and I are excited to share our faith, our travels and my photography with you all. We live in Oak H... more »

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