He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.
He turned the sea into dry land;
They went through the river on foot.
There we will rejoice in Him.
He rules by His power forever;
His eyes observe the nations;
Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves.
Psalm 66:5-7
It seems that everywhere we turn these days there is bad news. The national debt, gas prices, the housing market, moral decay, marriages failing, families suffering, and the list goes on. And the political climate seems to make matters worse, not better.
To many, the future looks bleak. And it seems those of us who care the most about our families and our country are more at risk of getting discouraged. If you are not careful, the 24/7 media frenzy can get to you very quickly.
Many looking at the 2012 election for some encouragement have also been disappointed. Is there anywhere we can turn for a bit of good news?
Yes! We turn to The Good News. We turn to God, as our Founders did.
We remember that God is “awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.” As “He turned the sea into dry land” for Israel, so He helped Washington in the crossing of the Delaware River on that cold winter night in 1776.
No question things looked pretty bleak for Washington that day. But “He rules by His power forever!” “Forever” means He still rules today. God still has His eyes on America. We must never forget that.
Whatever happened in past elections, whatever happens in the next one, He is still in control.
What comfort! What hope! What peace!
Does that then mean we need not engage in the current cultural and political discourse? By no means; who knows if God wills to use you to accomplish His purposes.
Indeed, Concerned Women for America (CWA) exists for this very purpose, knowing that God indeed uses us, as the body, “His wonders to perform.” We pray that you would consider joining the CWA family as we bring Biblical principles to public policy.
Yet the admonishment is clear, isn’t it? We must not exalt ourselves in any way.
How refreshing would it be for a president and a congress to recognize they do not have all the answers to get us out of the hole we have dug for ourselves, but instead to invoke, as our forefathers did, the wisdom of Almighty God as the only real answer to our current situation?
If they need a starting point, they have plenty from which to choose. Here is one signed by President Abraham Lincoln, appointing a National Fast Day in March 30, 1863:
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; 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.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? 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.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, 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.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
Now, that’s leadership. That’s hope.