"God Bless..."

In the process on moving out of my office today I was brought to a dead halt in the parking lot by something I had seen a thousand times before, a ribbon decal on a car reading "God Bless Our Troops". My head began to reel around the word blessing. And when we ask for a blessing for someone what are we really asking for.

Sadly, when we ask for God to Bless America's Troops I think we aren't really asking to solely keep them safe. (And it should be stated that safety in the eyes of the Savior who sacrificed himself is probably not along the same lines as our thinking). I think we are really asking for them to "win" this war. Which translated means "Please God, make me prevail against my enemy, who really is still your child." This is nothing less then asking God to show his favoritism. Why would we be foolish enough to use our prayers to pit one child of the King against another. It would be safe to say that this is not a reflection of God's heart.

And what do we mean when we say "God Bless America"? Make us #1? Sustain us in our ignorance and mis-treatment of others so that we can become even more gluttonous, prideful, and self-absorbed?

Yes, God is good and wants to give us the best things, but we really need to stop and think about what our prayers reflect in our heart. About the implications of their being granted on others. We need to test them to see if they are prayers that Christ would pray. Otherwise, we might as well be the mouthpiece for the Devil.