We have been the recipients of the choices bounties of Heaven.
We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity.
We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown
But we have forgotten God...
We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace
and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us;
And we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts,
that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient
to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace,
too proud to pray to the God that made us...
Let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings,
that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings,
no less than the pardon of our national sins,
and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country
to its former happy condition of unity and peace...
These words were spoken by PRESIDENT Abraham Lincoln on March 30, 1863 when he called on the inhabitants of the land to come before God for a day of solemn assembly on behalf of a challenged and divided nation.
President Lincoln beckoned the nation to come humbly before God and acknowledge and turn from its sins and failures - that times of refreshing and renewed blessing would come upon the country once again. He sought the blessings of a united nation that walked in true freedom - freedom that is only secured by trusting in the One who has ordained it - and by walking in the righteous manner He alone has the right to determine.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S words are as apt today for our generation as THEY WERE over a century ago...
Though we enjoy the many blessings of God in our lives as Americans, we often neglect to acknowledge them as the work of His Hand and claim the credit instead for ourselves. We continue to call out to Him to bless us but never consider how we might instead turn in gratefulness and bless Him.
George Washington himself, in his first inaugural address in 1789, makes it clear what is expected of us as a nation before God: "No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States..." As our first President, he also said, "...the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained". As one people, we are called on first to acknowledge God as the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of our nation - and secondly, we are called to walk in ways that please Him in our national and personal dealings and decisions - adhering to His plumb line of truth - and not walking according to our own ways and whims.
We find ourselves, as a nation, faced by threats from enemies without and from enemies within - terrorists that infiltrate among us and rogue nations that seek our downfall; the resurgence of racial division and mistrust; illicit use of legal and illegal drugs that are stealing precious lives and destinies; broken families and the legalization of sinful ways that contribute to the further erosion of the critical building blocks of society... We are indeed once again a "house divided" - with the ever increasing tensions of brother fighting against brother in regards to political and personal convictions...
How are we to respond?
We need to return as a nation to God. It is never God's heart to bring judgement on a people - His desire is that we turn from ways that lead only to destruction so that He CAN bless us. The God of all mankind is the God of true freedom - He allows us the liberty to choose which path we will take and clearly outlines the blessings or the consequences associated with each. His words to those who call on Him simply to bless them without recognizing their personal responsibility in the equation are these: If my people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land". God stands ready to bless and heal - how He responds is our decision...