As we come to July 4th, and my beloved country celebrates its birthday, even the most ardent American patriot can look around and see its ailing state of being.
It's easy to start pointing fingers and slip into political rhetoric, but this nation began as and has always been a nation of individuals connected by a common bond. Out of many, one: "E pluribus unum."
Whatever sickness (spiritually speaking) from which America suffers, it is we-the-people of America who are afflicted, not an inanimate continent.
King David wrote in Psalm 11:3, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
The ones who set out for the New World were driven by a desire to worship God freely, and they were led by their DEPENDENCE on the God they loved.
Our
forefathers wrote it into the Declaration of Independence; the bottom
line: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." (Photo: Painting of First Continental Congress kneeling in prayer) A "firm reliance" on "Divine Providence": God. This is America's foundation with everything else stripped away.
Independence Day seems to remind me lately of this country's attitude of independence-from-God that has been growing like those hard-to-kill weeds in our front lawns. Without cultivating the good grass, the weeds will soon take over.
The same is true in each of our hearts.
I know there have been gatherings and prayer events calling for us to return to our foundation of DEPENDENCE ON GOD as a country. But again, this country is individual people; its attitude change begins in the hearts of each of its citizens.
I have been reminded lately of the sweetness of depending on God.
Depending on the Lord Jesus for ultimate salvation, but also for everyday peace, direction, motivation, purpose.
Finding joy in the incredibly close and awe-inspiring Presence of God. Finding purpose, direction and strength in just knowing that the Creator and King of the Universe is "intimately acquainted with all our ways," and what's more, He wants to be!
It's a simple prayer, I know… But still I pray that each of us here in America, and everywhere in this beautiful Earth the Lord has given us, would return to this dependence on our immutable God.
