Tomorrow’s Fourth of July has pretty much turned into a kind of national showoff day. Small communities brag down Main Street, dragging floats, bands and Scouts. Big cities brag with “more-bang-for-your-buck” pyrotechnic displays that grow more elaborate every year. Families get together, feast on food and brag about their kids and grandkids.
The Fourth of July didn’t start as a day of bragging about our nation. Rather, it started as a national Prayer and Repentance Day as people contemplated the tremendous political and spiritual steps that were taken on July 4, 1776. Our founding fathers and mothers prayed and considered the weight of responsibility they all held as members of a democratic society. Instead of party time, the Fourth of July used to be a day of heartfelt prayer and humility.
John Adams believed that the Fourth of July should be a religious holiday, a day when we remembered God’s hand of deliverance and a day of religious activities when we committed ourselves to God in “solemn acts of devotion”. A God Alert
The founders of our nation did not organize a government and then try to decide what kind of government it would be and what it would try to do. No, the government did not come first. Values, ideals, freedoms and principles came first. After deciding on those, they then set up a government.
Tomorrow, more than a few bottles of Samuel Adams beer will be popped and consumed. But when its namesake, Samuel Adams, signed the Declaration of Independence, he boldly stated:
“We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. God reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.”
Is tomorrow a day for bragging or a day for praying?
