At Home – by Rudy Gray

We are rapidly approaching our nation’s birthday. July 4 is engrained in our minds as a holiday. It is our Independence Day. I like July 4. I like it because it stirs my heart to gratitude and my soul to what I hope is a godly patriotism. I like all the red, white, and blue. I enjoy the programs, musicals, and movies dealing with what is good about America. I like July 4 because of what it tells me about the providential blessings of God on this nation.

Rudy Gray

America was at one time regarded as a Christian nation, even by our Supreme Court. Our forefathers were, by and large, men and women of Christian faith who believed the Bible and were devoted to prayer. The first thing the Pilgrims did when they landed at Plymouth, Mass., in 1620 was to pray. Our first session of Congress began with prayer. On April 15, 1775, John Hancock, the first man to sign the Declaration of Independence, called Massachusetts to a day of prayer. At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin said, “I move that prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.”

On Nov. 18, 2005, several members of Congress signed “A Call to Prayer for America” in which the historical importance of prayer in American life was emphasized. Part of that document talks about our freedom to pray or not to pray. Then it adds, “That freedom is not diminished merely because one is elected to public office. Quite often the contrary, the cloak of authority placed upon the shoulders of a public servant should be an inspiration for those who believe in the power of prayer to use that great power to ask God to bless and sustain the nation they love and serve.”

July 4 is a great time. America is a great country. We have plenty of problems. But we have a legacy of prayer. It is time for us as Christian American citizens to pray fervently for this land we love. What can prayer do? It can be God’s tool for building a nation, blessing a nation, and using that nation to carry his gospel to the ends of the world.

God bless you. Happy Fourth of July.