The traditional motto of the United States of America is E Pluribus Unum—“Out of many, one.” From 1775, when the very first shots of the American Revolution were fired, to 1781, once the British surrendered at Yorktown and we won our independence, 13 diverse colonies fought as one. And though passions threatened our unity during the process of ratification, in the long run, compromise and conviction led to a Constitution that is among the most envy of the world.
However, since E Pluribus Unum appeared on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782, Americans–with the exception of the Civil War — haven’t been more divided. Today, our nation appears to be closer to Unum De Muftis—“out of just one, many.”
How did we get to this state of division? We will blame the radicalization of our universities, the degradation of our culture, or the politicization of our everyday lives. We will blame America’s disunity on the breakdown of the household, the incivility we see in the news headlines and on social networking, or the church’s loss in cultural influence. However it comes right down to a simple answer: we’ve forgotten God.
When people no longer love God, they can’t love themselves rightly. The equation is straightforward: Whenever we cease loving God, we cease loving ourselves; when we cease loving ourselves, we cease loving our neighbors. Psalm 9:17 warns that “the nations who forget God” will perish.
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On March 30, 1863, following the terrible loss in life at Antietam and the disaster of Fredericksburg through the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation appointing a national day of fasting and prayer. Recognizing that nations, as well as individuals, “are afflicted by punishments and chastisements in this world,” the president wondered whether “the awful calamity of civil war…maybe but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins.”
What did Lincoln identify whilst the national sin at that time?
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We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we’ve vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that most these blessings were created by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own Business. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we’ve become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
That which was true in 1863 remains true today—as a nation, America has forgotten God. Prayer could be the only activity, in the language of Lincoln, that may “nobly save…the last best, hope of earth.” We ought to heed the wisdom of the phrase first inscribed on US coins in 1864 under President Lincoln, legally adopted by Congress in 1956, and reaffirmed lately as America’s official national motto—“In God We Trust.”
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We obviously have to advocate for just laws, vote for ethical politicians who’ll uphold the Constitution, defend the rights of the preborn, and guard our families against moral corruption, among other things. But to complete these specific things without asking God to attend to your work is foolish since it cuts us off from the best power in the universe.
James 5:16 says that the prayer of a righteous person releases God’s power. So when we pray about the problems that affect our lives, we influence the fate of our families, our churches, and our nation. It’s happened before in history, and it can happen again.
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray in Matthew 6:5–13, He made it clear that the purpose of prayer isn’t to have our will done in heaven but to have God’s will done on earth. And when there is a period when we needed God’s will done in America, that point is now.
President Trump has proclaimed Thursday as a National Day of Prayer. As millions of Americans from all socioeconomic, ethnic, and political backgrounds pause to confess our sins and acknowledge our significance of God, won’t you join me in praying intently for the nation that individuals love?