{"id":701,"date":"2023-06-28T16:26:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T16:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/?p=701"},"modified":"2023-06-28T16:27:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T16:27:56","slug":"in-god-we-still-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/?p=701","title":{"rendered":"In God We Still Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Happy 247th<\/sup>\nBirthday America! You look pretty good for your age. I love our great country\nand was raised to be patriotic. In fact, when my parents disciplined me, they\ngave me stripes and I saw stars! Seriously, God has allowed and aided America\u2019s\nrise to unrivaled greatness in world history. Benjamin Franklin asked the\nContinental Congress, \u201cIf a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His\nnotice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

July\nFourth\u2014Independence Day\u2014commemorates how we broke the chains of tyranny from\nour oppressive mother country England. The closing clause of the Declaration of\nIndependence is actually a declaration of trust in and dependence on God. It\nreads, \u201cIn support of this declaration, with a firm reliance upon the\nprotection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives,\nour fortunes, and our sacred honor.\u201d The 56 men who signed it realized that\nwriting their autograph on that document was an act of treason and, without\nGod\u2019s help, they were doomed. Thomas Jefferson expressed what they all knew\ninside, \u201cWe must all hang together or most assuredly we will hang separately.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its flaws, America is still the breadbasket and the melting pot of the world. It is a beacon of hope to those oppressed by dictatorships; a bastion of freedom for those longing for liberty; a shining city on a hill the world looks to for humanitarian, military, and financial aid when tragedy strikes. But prosperity has lulled us to sleep, and we have forgotten the source of our blessings. As our country becomes more secularized, many bite the hand that feeds them, spurn God\u2019s moral laws, and spit in the face of Him whose blessings they enjoy. Jefferson\u2019s words still ring true, \u201cI tremble for my country when I remember that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not a doom\nand gloom preacher, but many of our recent calamities like national debt,\nprolonged wars, terrorist attacks, mass shootings, natural disasters, the\nopioid crisis, runaway inflation, anarchy and social upheaval are indicators of\nGod\u2019s favor lifting. Abraham Lincoln said, \u201cIt is the duty of nations as well\nas of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God . . . and to\nrecognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proved by all\nhistory, that those nations only are blest whose God is the Lord.\u201d He was quoting\nPsalm 33:12, which states, \u201cBlessed is\nthe nation whose God is the Lord.\u201d<\/em> What was true of Israel in Bible times\nis also true of America now\u2014as long as we stay in covenant with God, we will we\nremain strong and free. Ronald Reagan warned, \u201cIf we ever forget that we are\n\u2018One Nation Under God,\u2019 then we will be a nation gone under.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 30, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a resolution adopting \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d as our national motto and requiring it to be placed on all U.S. currency. He observed, \u201cIn these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, it is proper to remind all of us of this self-evident truth that as long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail.\u201d The origin of this motto is probably the final stanza of the Star Spangled Banner<\/em>, written by Francis Scott Key in 1814. This verse is rarely sung but its lyrics are rich with spiritual meaning:

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war\u2019s desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto\u2014\u201cIn God is our Trust;\u201d
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
O\u2019er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin Franklin, one of the least devout of the founding fathers,\nimplored the Continental Congress to have prayer in their sessions after weeks\nof endless debate turned into gridlock. He reminded the delegates of how God\nintervened during the Revolutionary War and answered frequent prayers in the\ncolonies\u2019 favor. He wondered, \u201cHave we forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we\nimagine we no longer need His assistance?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the National Day of Prayer, April 30, 1863, Abraham Lincoln reminded Americans of our true source of blessing. \u201cWe 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 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 to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

America is\nteetering on the brink of bankruptcy (financially, morally, and spiritually).\nCommon sense has been abandoned and our government spends money like a drunken\nsailor. Congress\u2019 solution is to keep raising the debt ceiling (kick the can\ndown the street for the next generation). Of all the major civilizations in\nhistory, most collapsed when they reached the state of moral decline America is\nnow in. One author noted, \u201cWhen any nation becomes overly pleasure seeking,\nhistory has already begun to write its epitaph.\u201d Here\u2019s the good news, although\nAmerica has forgotten God, He has not forgotten us. Isaiah 49:15 provides a\npowerful promise, \u201cCan a woman forget her\nnursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may\nforget, yet I will not forget you.\u201d<\/em> This promise, spoken over Israel,\napplies to God\u2019s people of all nations. The only hope for America is a\nnationwide spiritual awakening. David said it best, \u201cSome trust in chariots, and some in horses <\/em>[military might]; but we\nwill remember the name of the\nLord our God\u201d<\/em> (Ps. 20:7). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

America was built on the firm foundation of faith in God and His Word. We have drifted far from our heritage, but a strong, spiritual root system remains a vital part of our national identity. Secularists want to remove \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d from our currency and the phrase \u201cOne Nation Under God\u201d from our pledge of allegiance. They may try to rewrite history, but America\u2019s Judeo-Christian roots remain unchanged. Some claim the center verse of the entire Bible is Psalms 118:8\u2014\u201cIt is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.\u201d<\/em> My sincere hope and prayer is that America will continue to place its trust in God, for as Jeremiah 17:5, 7 declares, \u201cCursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord . . . Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy 247th Birthday America! You look pretty good for your age. I love our great country and was raised to be patriotic. In fact, when my parents disciplined me, they gave me stripes and I saw stars! Seriously, God has allowed and aided America\u2019s rise to unrivaled greatness in world history. Benjamin Franklin asked the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}