Making America Great
I love America! I believe there is no other place on earth that is as great as this country.
I praise the Lord that I have been blessed to live in a country that its very foundation is the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our nation’s core principle is freedom; freedom of peoples, freedom of properties, and freedom of religions.
Our founding fathers did a great job of creating our government. With total dependence on God, they constructed our Constitution with the idea that we are all created equal and that we should have equal opportunity to pursue happiness.
I mean think about it; we Americans came into a strange foreign land and created a new nation! I mean, who does that? (Well, except the whole thing between God and Israel)
But with God’s provision and wisdom, our country was built on the shoulders of great leaders, breaking free from the strong hand of tyranny to do the impossible. Others fought the perils of nature itself to tame an uninhabited landscape. While others gave their lives on foreign soil to keep this country from those who sought to destroy her ideas; and are still doing so today.
America’s Great Legacy
And although some today would have us to believe differently, our forefathers (and mothers) relied deeply on guidance from our heavenly Father God in forming this nation.
During the Constitutional Convention, when it seemed hopeless to bring all parties into agreement, Benjamin Franklin called for unity and offered these words of wisdom:
“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that “except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.”
America’s 1st President was a devout Christian who often invoked guidance from God as he attempted to wisely lead our newly developed country.
“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
And during a dark era when our country was literally divided within, President Lincoln offered these words of wisdom:
“And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God … and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”
– Abraham Lincoln
Although there are many, many examples of Christians petitioning the Lord for wisdom and guidance and evoking others to do the same, I will stop with this last quote from Samuel Adams:
We have this day [Fourth of July] restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His Kingdom come.
– Samuel Adams
Keeping America Great
And although we have people fighting and feuding over what the best ideas are for our country to move forward, we can look at our past and predict our future by this one quote from 1 Chronicles 7:14:
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.
What a great inheritance we Americans have been given! And what a great commission we Christians have been entrusted.
Please remember to pray for the America.
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
–Katherine Lee Bates
