Do we remember words of Abraham Lincoln in 1863? Perhaps, they need to be heard again today.

“We have been the recipients of the choicest 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!

It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

April 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer.

America. God whispers His warning. Are we willing to listen today? 2018? How can we respond to old words brought to light? Over 150 years ago. Today America, “Be still and know . . .”

God.

Sometimes a poem expresses best.

God speaks every day.  America, please listen with open ears and willing heart. Stop striving. Believe again, and pray.

 

America, America

Where is your heart and mind?

Have you truly turned your back to Me?

Are you lead by greed and pride?

“O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!” (1)

America, America

What do you prove today?

People divided. Hatred, fights, and lies?

America, a nation falls this way.

 

I, the King of heaven can see.

On the throne of glory, I reign.

Whether or not a man believes,

I, Almighty God, forever unchanging, remain.

 

America, America,

Of My grace, undeserved favor you sing.

But mercy and grace aren’t found in you.

Stop now. America, and heed My warning.

 

“Repent, for My Kingdom is at hand.”

John proclaimed in Bible years,

America, wake up! His message is for you!

Put off pride and indignation, and put on reverential fear.

 

America, America

Repent, Remember, Return to My Word.

With contrite spirit and broken heart,

“Be still and know, I am the Lord.” (2)

 

Isaiah 40:15,

No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand. NLT

 

One heart at a time. Let us turn our faces to God. Let us ask God for His mercy and forgiveness. Perhaps again, we will acknowledge Him, and obey Him in all we do and give Him glory, praise, and honor as He graciously sees us through., “And crown Thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.”

“In Jesus name,” (and who joins me in saying,) “Amen.”

 

 

(1) America the Beautiful, Katherine Lee Bates

(2) Psalm 46:10

Pictures credited to The Rebirth of America. The Arthur S. Demoss Foundation