SCRIPTURE: Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world. James 1:27 AMP
QUOTE: Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
– John Adams, 2nd President, United States of America
THOUGHT: For an entire year, I can’t get this quote of Adams out of my mind (and of course, Adams isn’t alone in his thinking, as you’ll see throughout this series of devotions). Most of the founders were ready to give their lives for the opportunity of ending the tyranny and corruption of big government and state church, and charting a course for something called self-government.
The new nation had law and code – not to control its citizens as much as to control its government! Rule which is still the law of the land, but to watch Washington act, you probably wouldn’t know it. It would almost seem there is zero trust in the ability of Americans to self-govern. There is a sort of jamming down ones throat, we know what you need. We know what’s best for you. Sounds a lot like tyranny, doesn’t it?
What John Adams knew is that Americans who allowed moral and religious decay became incapable of self-government, and therefore vulnerable to political bureaucratic, and even religious systems that always, always, always flow in to fill the void. If you don’t know the difference between right and wrong, a government seeking more power will be happy to tell you.
James spoke to the early church about the kind of religion and morality that is pure in God’s sight: individuals (rather than government) taking care of others in distress, especially the vulnerable, and each person responsible to keep him or herself uncontaminated by the secular world. It’s an interesting word, uncontaminated, and I have found that contamination doesn’t often happen all at once. “It’s a slow fade,” as Mark Hall of Casting Crowns penned so poignantly, “When you give yourself away / It’s a slow fade / When black and white have turned to grey / And thoughts invade, choices are made / A price will be paid / When you give yourself away / People never crumble in a day / It’s a slow fade.”
We have given ourselves away. We can only rise up as a nation of self-governing people by falling on our knees before God, thus coming into agreement on moral and spiritual law. Divided on what made our nation great, we will fall. United, we will stand, and the Constitution can once again protect the people.
SONG: Slow Fade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASREBVDsLk
PRAYER: Oh God, mend our every flaw. We pray for revival to flow from hearts broken of immorality and godlessness. Hearts that turn to you and learn again how to self-govern and stand against tyranny.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
Check out Walking When You’d Rather Fly, and learn more about the book and Amy’s other ministries. You will also find her devotional work at Words of Hope.
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