If those who signed the original Declaration of Independence in 1776 could see America today, I wonder what they would think of what we have become. Would they be impressed with our technology? Would they find our economy amazing? Would our infrastructure of highways, air traffic, and train travel surprise them? Would they be proud of the nation they helped launch?
On this fourth day of July, freedom is a catch word for a lot of causes. Freedom from tyranny. Freedom to live as we wish. Freedom to hop in our car and drive the width of the continent without a checkpoint at every state border. Those who have been born citizens have never known what it is to be oppressed, to be afraid of an outside power, to go to sleep at night and wonder if we’ll see the morning come.
We live in a culture which is the envy of the world. People who want to become citizens far outnumber those who would choose to live elsewhere.
Yet there is strife and anxiety. Many fear our freedoms are in jeopardy. Many think America has lost her original zeal. That she will fail as a nation. That her children will become enslaved in another ideology—one that does not support the traditions set forth by our founding fathers. Religious freedom will become a thing of another time and another era.
In I Chronicles 7:14 God makes us a promise. “If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
This July Fourth will you join me in beseeching the great God of the universe to hear our petitions, forgive us for our wrongdoings, and heal our land? America has not yet been lost, it has merely strayed from its original path. God will guide us back.