In God We Trust

Passage of Scripture: Psalm 22: 4-4

(4) Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. (5) They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed.

Take hold of a coin, any US coin and read what it says on one side of the coin. You most likely found the words... "United States of America", "Liberty", and "In God We Trust." Now look at any US bill of any denomination and read what it says... "The United States of America", and "In God We Trust."

Today's date is 12/25/2006. Why is this important? Because there may be a day when these words may no longer be on our US currency. I know that's a bold statement and of course it's just my opinion. But I say this because our country is no longer trusting in God to be delivered. We've become a nation that went from founding forefathers trusting in God to survive and not being ashamed to proclaim their trust in God, to now days we want to do all we can to take God out of everything we do. We no longer want the pledge of allegiance to say the words, "One nation under God." We have successfully taken prayer out of our schools. We use words that are politically correct because we don't want to offend anyone. So we say things like... "Pray to your God" (whatever that may be), we say all religions are OK. I mean after all who are we to tell people how to live?
Hogwash! Oh how I wish we were like the generations past that understood and were not ashamed to say they trusted in God to provide for our nation. They believed in God's Word (the bible) and when they read the scriptures, such as Psalm 22: 4-5, they could relate to people crying out to God for deliverance. When they read 1st and 2nd Kings in the bible, they saw that the success of the Nations and Kingdoms greatly depended upon the relationship that the leader had with God. Also, as the leader went, so did the people. If the leader repented and turned to God, then the people were blessed and delivered from destruction. Our forefathers knew that when a King would turn from God and go back to their old selfish and sinful ways, so did the people and their country. And God's wrath was always just around the corner.

I believe this great country of ours was founded by Godly men seeking to put all their trust in following God. They were obedient to God and realized they needed God. This country was blessed in so many ways and overtime through God's blessing, we have become a great and powerful nation. But, I'm sad to say we are at risk. We're floundering. We are no longer seeking biblical morals and values as a nation. We've learned to turn our eyes from the sin that is destroying our country and we are saying to our children and future generations that we don't need God anymore! We have become like the church of Laodicea mentioned in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 3:15-17,19. (15) I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! (16) So, because you are lukewarm-- neither hot nor cold-- I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (17) You say, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (19) Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

It breaks my heart to imagine that our actions as a nation could make such a bad taste in the mouth of God that he would want to spit us out, make him vomit!

There is good news for our nation... God promises to rebuke and discipline us because he loves us. So when we go through trials that bring us as a nation to our knees in prayer and pleading for forgiveness...we need to be thankful! God might just be rebuking us, because he loves us enough to work on changing our behavior. I thank God that he is a patient God. In the book of Jonah we can see that God was going to destroy the city of Nineveh because of their evil ways. Jonah was told by God to go and tell the city that he was going to destroy them. God had had enough!

As we read further in Jonah 3:6-10, we see that when the news reached the King of Nineveh he issues a proclamation in Nineveh: asking everyone to call urgently on God. He says let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.

Jonah 3:4, But this great city, after hearing from Jonah, repented and turned from their evil ways and looked to God for forgiveness.

We can see in Verse 10 of Jonah that God did have compassion on them because they repented and he spared the great city and the people in it. I just can't help but see similarities with the great city of Nineveh and our great nation, the United States of America. Our country needs leaders who are willing to stand up strong in their faith, such as this King of Nineveh did, and proclaim that as a nation we need to repent and turn from our evil ways. Maybe, just maybe, God will have compassion on us and not allow us to perish.

Prayer: Dear God, please let us as a nation have the courage and wisdom to declare You once again our Lord. May we never forget to believe and place our trust in You. "In God We Trust." Amen