I watched with great interest the president’s speech this morning on rebuilding the economic prosperity of America. It was a great and inspiring speech and contained many important and relevant facts that inspired me and is the reason that I am writing this post.
The key element of President Obama’s speech that was missing was the fact that America has been blessed by God in her past history because the citizens of this great land have honored and worshipped the God of the Bible.
The founders of our nation stated that it was impossible that this land could have come into existence if God had not willed it to be. The reason for our past prosperity and global standing as the most wealthy and powerful nation on the earth is because as a people, we have in the past honored God.
“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” - George Washington
“We beseech [God] to pardon our national and other transgressions… “ - George Washington
“We recognize no sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus.” - John Adams and John Hancock
“The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.” -John Adams
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.” - John Adams
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” -Patrick Henry
“The only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.” - Benjamin Rush
“Let the children…be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education. “ -Benjamin Rush
“The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.” - United States Congress 1782
Congress printed a Bible for America: “The United States in Congress assembled … recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States … a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools.” - United States Congress 1782
This honor for God began to change in the mid 60′s as prayer was prohibited from public schools. God was denigrated from United States Government. Abortion became the birth control of those who had unwanted pregnancies. The pursuit of pleasure and money superseded the desire for righteousness and goodness. Americans were no longer satisfied with what they already had been blessed with, they wanted more.
Women took to the workforce, leaving at home young children to be cared for by third parties. As the years passed, children did not know their parents because their parents were rarely home. When they were, it was to rest and recuperate from the stress of the week. The time that children craved from their mother and father remained absent.
The mental and spiritual state of children began to suffer and the results of this lack of parental care gave way to a generation of young people who were emotionally disconnected and possessed empty souls.
All so that there could be two incomes in the house instead of one. For the sake of material possessions that are quickly forgotten and fade away, the precious souls of our children were again sacrificed.
In some cases it was necessary for both parents to work for the family to survive. But in the majority of American homes, the decision to have both parents absent from the home was to buy a bigger house, a better car, a more luxurious vacation, not to put food on the table.
This generation of kids that grew up without the benefit of the love they craved from their mother and father, went themselves into the work force. They imitated what they had learned from their parents. They purchased homes that they could not afford and pursued happiness through the gaining of material possessions.
Ever more empty, they wondered why the American dream they had been told about did not satisfy them. When the housing market collapsed, they lost their homes, their jobs and their families.
In order for America to return to her former greatness and once again experience the blessing of God, Americans will need to return to God. In individual repentance and internal reflection. We as a people will need to return to our God with all of our heart.
We have strayed away from the fountain of living water that made our lives a blessing. We have filled the cisterns of our lives with emptiness that does not satisfy and cannot sustain us.
Jeremiah 2:13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
It is not too late. Though our enemies have already been given access to our land that in former times was unheard of. God is speaking to us, but He is not shouting. It is a still small voice whispering into our ears to turn from the course that we are on and return to Him.
If each one of us experiences an individual repentance and return to the Lord, then the entire nation will experience a rebirth the likes of which we cannot imagine.
If however we continue on the tragic course that we have set ourselves upon, it is for certain that within a decade we will find that it is too late and our great nation will come to complete ruin.
The warning signs are all around us. We spend more than we have. We love the wrong things. We are indignant over righteousness and burn with passion over evil.
The answer for America is not greater financial prosperity, but for greater hunger for the God who birthed us as a nation in the first place.
As Daniel uttered a prayer of repentance for the sins of his entire nation, I utter my own for myself and my country. Let us return to our God in brokenness and humility. He will hear us and forgive us and once again bring the greatest blessings we have yet to experience.
If America truly wants God’s blessing, we will need to once again be a blessing to our God.
Jeremiah 4:1 …“Return to Me; And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, Then you shall not be moved.”
Nehemiah 1:9 “but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.”
Rob Robinson
