Did you know that Benjamin Franklin requested that the Constitutional Congress open all of it's meetings with prayer? We do not need to separate God from our country - indeed, He was in the founding of it.
#GlennRawsonStories #independence #independenceday #prayer
A Patriot’s Plea
After the war with England, America was not yet united states but rather 13 bickering little provinces. She likely would not have survived as a free people had not the delegates from the 13 American states met in convention to form a new government with power to unite and save the union. Even at that, their bickering, contention, their stubbornness and selfishness, nearly ruined the entire effort. Then, during the convention, June 28th 1787, after a particularly difficult day of debate, doctor Benjamin Franklin spoke up. His words have become immortal. And I want you to hear them.
He said:
“The small progress we have made after 4 or five weeks…is methink a melancholy proof of the imperfection of human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom since we have been running about in search of it… In this situation…groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarcely able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.
“To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future nations felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured sir, in the sacred writings that ‘except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.’
“I firmly believe this… I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”
Doctor Franklin’s motion for prayer was seconded, discussed, and dismissed. Prayer did not become an official practice of the Grand Convention. But it remained a private one. The Almighty blessed the work of those men. Perhaps in spite of some of them.
Why did He care? For more than a century and a half, two mighty forces have thrashed the nations of the earth reaping freedom wherever they have gone. They are the American constitutional republic and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The republic and the restoration.
Prayer is the key to power. By it, God befriended America once and she rose out of obscurity. I ask anew, have we as a nation now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we in our might no longer need His assistance? No, God still governs in the affairs of men. May we ever be a praying people. I humbly pray.
Source:
oll.libertyfun...
See more at GlennRawsonStories.com.