Excerpts from the book: Can God Bless America? by John Mac Arthur

 Excerpt from the book:

"We rarely hear anyone today calling people to repentance. In many quarters, it is considered bad protocol and bad form to remind people that the Word of God makes demands on us. The reproofs, rebukes, and exhortations of God’s Word are simply not what most people today want to hear. They won’t tolerate it (cf. 2 Timothy 4:3). Therefore even some preachers avoid mentioning such matters. Sadly, when sin is not confronted, sinners do not perceive their need for grace and forgiveness.

Frankly, our nation is in no position at the moment to be blessed. We’re actually more likely to be cursed by God.

So is our prayer for blessing futile? I don’t believe it is futile. But we need to understand that a prayer for divine blessing presupposes a willingness to cultivate the conditions under which divine blessing can come.

What are those conditions? Let’s turn to Scripture and investigate the question almost no one is asking.

James 4:7–10 gives a list of ten commands that set forth the conditions for divine blessing. James addresses his epistle to Christian people (he frequently refers to them as “my brethren”), so some commentators have assumed that these ten imperatives apply only to believers, rather than to unbelievers who have never been born again.

But that misses the point. This list of directives is addressed to “sinners” and the “double-minded” (v. 8), and those are terms that are normally used in Scripture to describe unredeemed people. James is evidently concerned that some in his audience are not truly redeemed. He calls them “Adulterers and adulteresses!” (v. 4), and he warns them that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Apparently he believed some of these people, though professing to be believers, had never been truly born again. And so he outlines for them what true repentance demands of them: “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (vv. 7–10)."