As we continue our focus on the theme "Blessed is the Nation..."  Let's turn again to the key verse for the focus, Psalm 33:12: ¹²Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance. (Psalm 33:12 NIV)  Notice that God is the one who chose the people, not the other way around.  Ever since God created people, we have been rejecting Him and His ways.  It started with Eve and Adam, continued with Cain, and by the time of Noah, God judged humanity and found only Noah was righteous!

Thank God for Noah!  If not for that one righteous man, all humanity would have been destroyed.  Once Noah and his family got off the ark and started repopulating the earth, the same trends seen before the floods returned.  In fact, Noah, himself, got on board by planting a vineyard and using the grapes to produce wine, which he drank to the point of intoxication.  Human beings have a "perfect" record at rejecting God.  Even so, God continues to choose people and to offer them His inheritance.

When Jesus came to the world, He ended the string of human beings who rejected God, lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death on the cross for us, and made it possible for God to choose not just one nation--Israel--but to choose people from every people, tribe, tongue and nation, as His word puts it.  As we go about this day, our task is to live as redeemed (people who have been purchased from death by the blood of Jesus) citizens of God's Kingdom AND as redeemed citizens of the United States of America.

In any nation, those who follow Jesus, the citizens of heaven, are to be "salt and light" as citizens of the nation in which they live.  As we go about this day (which is the only day we're guaranteed!), God calls us to love Him with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength, and to love one  another as we love ourselves.  He calls us to do to others as we'd want them to do to us.  That's Kingdom citizenship.  It can only be lived when we have the power source of heaven--the Holy Spirit in us and controlling us.  Otherwise, we will reject God, even as He chooses us.  Human history records dismal performances of following God and His will, and yet God believes in us!  What an amazing truth, and what an opportunity that gives us to live each day to God's glory and praise.

If we want our nation to be blessed, it starts with us, and our commitment to live in God's blessing, by seeking Him first every moment.  After all, God has always promised to bless the nations through faithful people He has chosen! (See Genesis 12).

Let's pray:  Heavenly Father, fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we may live obedient and blessed lives, and thus be a blessing to our families, our communities and ultimately our nation.  We want our nation to be blessed and we know that starts with You and with us.  This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.