America: In God Do We Trust?
By Jeanne Gowen Dennis
America: in God do we trust? Do we as a nation live up to the motto found even on our money?
“In God We Trust”
An Ancient Lack of Trust
The prophet Isaiah predicted a time during the fall of Jerusalem when people would be desperate to find someone to rule over them and try to fix the mess they would be in:
“When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying,
‘You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler,
And these ruins will be under your charge . . .'” (Isa. 3:6).
That reminded me of when Israel wanted a king so they could be like the surrounding nations. God warned them through the prophet Samuel that the king would take their children, money, and possessions and make the people his servants.
“Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, ‘No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles'” (1 Sam. 8:19–20 NASB).
Do We Want Freedom or Security?
I wonder what it is in humans that compels us to want others to lead us, especially during crises. Do we want leaders so they can fight our battles, take responsibility for things we feel powerless to handle? Or don’t want to handle?
Is it because we would rather be taken care of, trading freedom for a crippling form of security?
Or is it because deep in our spirits we know we need someone more powerful, trustworthy, and faithful, than we are to take charge? To solve our seemingly insurmountable problems?
America Like Ancient Israel
America today is in some ways like the people of Judah and Israel during the times of Samuel and Isaiah. We are searching for someone to lead us out of a horrendous mess.
What kind of leaders do we want in the White House, the Houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court? Do we want rulers? A king and his court, if you will, instead of the representative government our founders designed?
Do we want a government that will take care of us? Repair what we can’t fix? Take responsibility so we won’t have to? To make our moral decisions for us?
Not What Our Forefathers Planned
Our constitutional government was designed for a free, moral people. For a melting pot of immigrants and natural-born citizens who worked hard to build a healthy economy and dependable work ethic.
It was created for strong people who would fight to keep their own nation free and give up their lives to free others.
It was not made for a people with a me-first, anything goes ethic.
In the words of John Adams,
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.
America, what kind of people are we?
Wake Up and Trust God!
Like Israel and Judah, if we hope for human rulers to solve our problems, we can expect only more trouble . . . maybe even total destruction.
A free people has no king but God.
Like Israel’s kings, our government, culture, and materialism are stealing our children, money, and possessions. Progressively, it has been transforming us into slaves.
It’s time to wake up, America! We need to put God back on the throne of our hearts and lives.
God is the only one who can solve our economic crisis, joblessness, insane national debt, and all the other ills that plague us, both as a nation and individually.
America, in God DO we trust?
Now, more than ever, is the time to take our national motto to heart:
In GOD we trust.
I trust in God. Do you?
© Jeanne Gowen Dennis, Heritage of Truth
(This is a revision of an article I wrote in 2012, which is more relevant now than at that time.)
Photo credit: The Signing of the Constitution by Howard Chandler Christy, Architect of the Capitol
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