True Increase in Times of Trouble

To the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song. God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us. Selah2 That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. 4 Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You shall judge the people righteously, And govern the nations on earth. Selah5 Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. 6 Then the earth shall yield her increase; God, our own God, shall bless us. 7 God shall bless us, And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

Psalms 67:1-7 (NKJV)

If you ever wondered where real prosperity comes from, then read this Psalm again. When God takes His hand off of things, they die. Why? God is the life of the earth.

I may not be a prophet, but a prophet doesn't have to be consulted when you wee that times are tough. I know of only one surefire way of seeing our nation begin to rise back up, and it has nothing to do with the answers we keep giving for our problems.

As a nation, we need a national revival. We need the hope that comes from Jesus. We need to be honest with oursleves and the way we live life.

When God takes second place in our lives, we loose. Jesus told a fig tree to die one day. The next day it was shriveled and dead. That might not seem like a nice thing to do. I had questioned that move for a long time, but last night I finally understood it.

That fruitless tree looked like it was full of life, but it had nothing to offer. Many people walk through life acting like they have everthing to offer. They present a front but hide their true intentions.

Many of us want to give something and add something to life. We want to know we have what it takes in life but we are hiding things in our life that make us fruitless. Maybe it is some hurt or wound given to us by someone when we were younger.

That wound has to be dealt with. God is the one who validates our lives. He gives us passion and purpose. That fruitless persona needs to be killed oof and through Jesus we have the power to do so.

At the moment, God begins to graft us into the life-sustaining vine. He takes the dead and rotted and giveit life. He prunes it and makes us fruitful.

As a nation we have to deal with our sins. We have hurts we have to deal with instead of glossing over. Until we heal, we will not have answers and we will continue to watch God's hand move away because He wants us to understand how utterly helpless we truly are.

I hope you will consider these words and look inside yourself and honestly assess your worship of God. We all need to do so, "then the earth shall yield her increase."