“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  James 5:16

Last fall, I had a unique opportunity,  to take a Spiritual Heritage Tour in the US Capitol and then attend a dinner that followed.

This tour and dinner was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  For the rest of my life, I will never, EVER forget it.  Standing in the rotunda of the US Capitol and hearing the stories of our nation’s founding caused my heart to swell with gratitude.   I was blessed beyond words at what I learned that night.  It gave me renewed hope that possibly, just maybe, the downward moral and spiritual spiral happening in our country could be reversed…  If we, as a country, would turn back to God.

This week as we celebrate our nation’s founding, it seemed appropriate to share some of what I learned.  I was surprised to learn that America’s Founding Fathers were:

• Men who feared God and had a deep reverence of His Word
• They were men who regularly prayed and fasted.
• They were men who welcomed anyone of any religion, but desired to establish America as a Christian nation.
• They were men who took time to remember all God had done on their behalf during the long days of establishing the Constitution.
• They were men who disagreed, but found when they would commit their meetings to prayer,  God would resolve their differences.  (Can you imagine Congress doing this now???)
  

I also learned:

• The Founders derived most of their ideas for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution from the Bible. 
• They created a Constitutional republic so that the Bible would remain the plumb line of our society.
• They also established a church within the United States Capitol before its construction was complete.  The Capitol continued to be used as a Church until after the Civil War.

Who would have known such interesting trivia?!   Textbooks have been so heavily censored, you would otherwise never know these things.

As the tour guide shared, I couldn’t stop the tears from welling in my eyes as I learned about the strong spiritual heritage of our beloved country.   (Despite the fact that I was wearing high heels and writhing pain:)

But as you can see, our nation as a whole is not a nation that wants to considered a nation “under God.”  We’ve become a multicultural, pluralistic society where it’s politically incorrect to ascribe to the One, true God.

In addition,  we’ve told God to get out of our culture, our government, our schools, our business and our marketplace.  As a result, God is slowly backing away –  taking with Him His protection, peace, and blessing.

As we celebrate the 4th of July this week, I challenge anyone who loves America to pray.    Do not turn to just any god, but turn to the One, true, living God who loves us, who will hear us, who will forgive us.  The only One who can bring healing to our nation.

• Thank Him for allowing you to live in this very special country. 
• Thank Him for the many ways He has allowed us to be so blessed as a country (as evidenced by people from other cultures coming to America in droves.)
• Pray that God and prayer would continue to be given honor by our nation’s leaders (as evidenced at the 2017 National Day of Prayer service).
• Pray for the awakening of God’s people.   
• Pray that we would repent of any known sin and turn to God.*
• Pray that as a nation, we would turn back to the One, true living God Who founded this great land.
• Pray that He would return to us; forgive our sin and heal our land.

For the Glory of the Great Name of Jesus.  Amen.

*Specific areas to confess, refer to:  Prayer guide from the National Day of Prayer .  It helps us to see areas of sin we may not otherwise be blind to.  Sin – that could be withholding God’s blessing on us as a nation…