Disclaimer: This post is a departure from my usual sermonettes on prayer. I hope you see this statement, not as political, but as patriotic. If you agree with my sentiments, I ask you to share this post with your friends of faith who love God and love liberty.
To those who believe in personal, God-given, inalienable rights and who want to honor the founding principles of the American nation—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—the government of the United States is out of control and has been for many decades. I refer to no party or individual but to ideologies and philosophies. The Constitution has been trampled and shredded, burned at the stake of avarice and greed. The national government that rules our lives today would be wholly unrecognizable to the framers of the nation.
At the top of the list of egregious offenses of the American government is the attempt to remove God from the public consciousness. The Bill of Rights called for the protection of freedom of religion, but it did not advocate freedom from religion. To remove all references to a Supreme Being and His laws from the public forum was not in the minds of the founders, nor was it the agenda of our leaders for the first four score and seven years after the nation's formation.
With the gradual and insidious adoption of progressivism and socialism, however, as political tools to solve social issues at the expense of individual rights, our government is mimicking the godless philosophies of the atheistic nations of communism.
It is time to call our national leaders to repentance. They cannot ignore God and expunge Him from public debate and expect to continue to receive His grace and mercy.
It was by God’s grace that this nation was founded and the tyrannical oppressors were thrown off. It was by Divine blessing that this country became prosperous.
Now that we have reaped the benefits of faithful men and women who honored God and prayed for His beneficence, we are foolish to turn our backs on the Giver of all good things. We as a nation have become proud, haughty, arrogant, selfish, self-sufficient, and self-indulgent. Our leaders, regardless of political party, for generations have forgotten where we came from and how we got here. They think they are rich enough and powerful enough that they don’t need God anymore. They can solve the world’s problems with money and machinery and weapons of mass destruction.
They refuse to see the weakness that is creeping into the fibers and sinews of the country. They wish to sit on the laurels of past glories and fail to acknowledge the disdain and disrespect that is growing around the world at our fat and flabby image of smug superiority. We are, in fact, hardly better off than our third-world neighbors. We have lost the will to be righteous and to be free.
WE THE PEOPLE have access like never before to the eyes and ears of our government leaders through social media and electronic communications. We must use this access to send a message to those who are in power in the government today and those who hope to attain to power in the future.
We as a people and as individuals must repent, return to God, and honor the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God. And that repentance must begin at the top.
Let God, whose right it is to reign over the human family, participate in the public forum.
Reinstate public prayer.
Acknowledge and thank the Giver of all blessings and ask for His blessings to be renewed.
Enthrone again the laws of God as the founding principles of truth and justice.
Plead with God to work again among this people and in our national and personal lives.
Plead for forgiveness for having strayed from the truth that all men and women are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator, not by our government, with certain inalienable rights, and that the role of government is to secure and protect these rights, and nothing more.
Let us return to the first two great commandments for all mankind—love God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength; and love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us not get these commandments out of their heaven-prescribed order or think we can keep the second commandment without first keeping the first commandment.
Let us pray for our national leaders in all branches of government—and in the administrative state that has usurped power and authority from the Constitutionally authorized branches—that their hearts will be softened and righteous wisdom will prevail. Let us pray for a change of heart and a new spirit within our country, beginning with our leaders. Let us pray for our leaders to lead in righteousness.
And if they choose not to repent, let us pray that righteous, good, and wise people will come forward and be recognized. Let us pray for people we can trust, who embody the virtues of integrity and honesty and faith. Let us pray for God-fearing men and women in whom the public trust is warranted and who will look to God for inspiration. Let us pray for people who are accountable to God ahead of political parties and special interest groups. And when such people are found, let us support and sustain them with our allegiance, our votes, and our continued prayers.
God will not allow a wicked people to occupy this land, speaking of people as a nation and not as individuals. It is only by the faith and prayers of the righteous citizens of every religious persuasion and sect that we have been spared thus far. As a nation, America has violated—and continues to violate—every one of the Ten Commandments that form the basis for Western civilization. We cannot hope to break every law of God and have Him turn a blind eye forever.
Let us petition our leaders to reinstate the laws of God and look to the rule of the Almighty as the overarching premise for good government. Let us plead for our rights as defined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We grew strong and independent as a people when these principles were the supreme law of the land. We grow weak and dependent today when we ignore them.
Pray for strength of character and virtue and faith in God to prevail in our leaders and our government. Pray that God will look with favor again upon this nation. Pray for a rebirth of freedom and faith before both are taken from us, with the rest of our rights, and we plunge into an era of darkness as black as the darkest of the Dark Ages of the past.
Prayer is the beginning of change.
