What’s Next after 250? Blessed to Be a Blessing

The fireworks have faded. (I hope you saw the record-breaking Washington, D.C. fireworks, wow! They were incredible.) The flags have been folded. Families are or have returned home, and another Independence Day weekend has come to a close. This year’s special celebration was unique. For the first time, Americans marked 250 years of independence. It was an opportunity to reflect on our nation’s history, to appreciate the blessings we have enjoyed, and to thank God for His kindness over these past two and a half centuries – the Semiquincentennial of American Independence.

But now comes an important question.

What’s next?

For those of us who follow Jesus Christ, the answer is not found simply in preserving what we have received. Instead, it is found in faithfully stewarding what God has entrusted to us. Psalm 67 provides a beautiful perspective for this moment.

The psalm opens with a familiar prayer:

“God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us” (Psalm 67:1).

Those words echo the priestly blessing of Numbers 6. They are a prayer for God’s gracious favor. The psalmist asks for mercy, blessing, and the shining presence of God.

But what is striking is why he asks.

“That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations” (Psalm 67:2).

The blessing is never the destination; it is the starting point. The prayer recognizes that God blesses His people so that His saving ways become known throughout the world. This truth has profound implications for every believer, and perhaps especially for Christians living in the United States.

Over the past 250 years, God has shown extraordinary kindness to our nation. We have enjoyed freedoms that countless believers throughout history could scarcely imagine. Churches have flourished. Missionaries have been sent across the globe. Christian colleges, seminaries, publishing ministries, relief organizations, and countless local churches have benefited from remarkable opportunities. Our founding documents enshrine our freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, and association in the truth as rights established by God.

Blessings Produce Responsibility

These blessings should produce gratitude, of course (as we discussed in our previous blog this week). However, that is not all they should produce, they also provide each one of us a great responsibility. Too often we think of blessing as something God gives primarily for our comfort. Yet, Psalm 67 presents a different picture.

Catch this: God blesses His people so they can become a blessing to others. Throughout Scripture, we see this pattern repeatedly.

In the Old Testament, God chose Israel to display His glory among the nations. As God blessed His covenant people, the surrounding nations were to witness His greatness and be drawn to worship Him. We might describe this as a centripetal missions movement, which means that people undergo a drawing inward toward the Lord as His glory was displayed through His people.

When we come to the New Testament, Jesus commissions His Church to “go and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). The Gospel now moves outward through believers who proclaim Christ to the ends of the earth. This is a centrifugal missions movement, which means the people of God being sent outward with the message of salvation to the people of the world.

These are not competing ideas. They complement one another beautifully. Today, God’s people are to live in such a way that His character is visible, while also intentionally carrying His Gospel to those who have never heard. Our witness draws attention to God, and our mission carries His message to the world.

Psalm 67 captures both realities. The psalmist longs for God’s blessing, but never as an end in itself. Every blessing we receive has a purpose beyond ourselves, which raises an important question. What blessings have we received? For many of us, the list is remarkably long.

• We have God’s Word readily available in multiple translations.
• We have generations of faithful believers whose writings continue to strengthen the Church.
• We have seminaries, Bible colleges, and other opportunities for theological education.
• We have financial resources that much of the world could scarcely imagine.
• We have transportation systems that allow missionaries to reach distant places in hours instead of months.
• We have communication technologies capable of placing biblical truth into nearly every corner of the globe.
• Above all, many of us have enjoyed the freedom to worship Christ openly and proclaim His Gospel without fear.

These are extraordinary gifts. But they are also extraordinary stewardships.

Brothers and sisters, this is so important to understand. One of the great temptations accompanying prosperity is to begin treating blessings as possessions rather than responsibilities. Scripture continually reminds us that everything we have belongs to God. Our time. Our abilities. Our resources. Our freedoms. Our opportunities. None of these exist merely for our personal enjoyment. They have been entrusted to us for God’s purposes.

Psalm 67 gently redirects our thinking. God’s blessings are never merely about us. They are always connected to His mission among the nations. This truth challenges the questions we often ask. Consider these:

• Instead of asking, How can God bless me? perhaps we should ask, How can God use what He has already entrusted to me for His glory?
• Instead of asking, How can I preserve my comfort? perhaps we should ask, How can I sacrificially invest in the advance of the Gospel?
• Instead of asking, What do I deserve? perhaps we should ask, How can I faithfully steward what I have received?

Those are very different prayers. In fact, they are also deeply biblical prayers. These prayers recognize the stewardship we have received as a result of God’s blessings to us.

Again, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to miss this. Before you pray, God, would you please bless me?, you need to ask yourself, For what end do I want to be blessed?

Next Steps

As we move beyond this historic anniversary weekend, I hope our hearts will not simply be filled with appreciation for the past. I hope they will also be filled with renewed purpose for the future. The world still desperately needs the Gospel. Billions of people have never heard the saving message of Jesus Christ. Churches still need strengthening. Missionaries still need sending. Pastors still need encouragement. Neighbors still need someone willing to speak about Christ. Children still need to hear the truth. There are needs all around us.

The blessings God has poured into our lives were never intended to stop with us. Instead, they were meant to flow through us. We are but stewards of what God has given. In fact, that has always been God’s pattern. He blesses His people so that His name will be known. He shows mercy so that others may discover His salvation. He entrusts resources so that His mission will advance.

As we leave behind the celebration of America’s 250th birthday, perhaps the best question we can ask is not simply, What blessings have we received? Rather: What will we do with them? Our prayer that God may bless America should not stop with what receive, but must include both the motivation or why we desire blessing and then the commitment to faithfully follow through with our stewardship of God’s blessings to us.

As we close out this weekend and anticipate the next 250 years (which we need to live out day by day), we do stop and pray:

– May God continue to bless His people – not so that we become more comfortable, but so that we become more faithful.

– May He increase our gratitude.

– May He deepen our stewardship.

– May He enlarge our vision for the nations.

– And may His saving way be known on earth, His salvation among all peoples.

 

---

In case you missed them, here are the first two blogs of this three-blog mini series on the Semiquincentennial of American Independence:

Before We Celebrate a Nation, Let Us Give Thanks to God – A look upward at gratitude from Psalm 107

A Prayer for Our Nation at 250 – A look forward with prayer from 1 Timothy 2