In God We Trust—and Thank
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
—Micah 6:8
I love our country. I really do.
I don’t know if it’s because of the U.S.A. flag shower curtain my mom put in my bathroom when I was a kid. Or because of Jump5’s 2001 rendition of “God Bless the U.S.A.” that I listened to on repeat. I don’t know if it’s because of the numerous American Girl stories I read, which made me a real history buff by the time I was 10. Or maybe it was the kids’ show on PBS about the Revolutionary War.
Whatever it was, I truly love this nation.
In 2015, I was hit with a deep conviction to intercede for our nation’s politics and world events. I had somewhat paid attention to those types of topics before then, but not enough to fully converse about them. However, that changed that year. I didn’t become an expert, but I began learning and keeping up with the news. My friend and I even traveled to D.C. over the New Year to pray over the nation, the White House, and who our next president would be.
One thing that is obviously true about our great country is that there are a lot of issues. That’s maybe the one thing everybody can agree on. I think we’ve come a long way on some things, I think we’ve backslidden on some things, and I think maybe we’re starting to head in the right direction on some things. But which “things” belong in which category will vary greatly from person to person.
And I held this tension in my heart and mind as I asked the Lord what He wanted me to write about for this wonderful Independence Day. I had several potential directions in mind, but He surprised me.
He said, “Gratitude.”
Gratitude for our nation.
Gratitude for our freedoms, which we actually do have a lot of. So much freedom that we can easily step into an entitled perspective and miss it.
Gratitude for our history—the good and bad because we can learn something from it all and nothing is too hard for God’s redemptive power.
Gratitude that this is the place God chose to put us.
It’s easy to look around, watch the news (or TikTok for you younger audiences), read the articles, and complain. It’s easy to see the bad. The sinful nature is trained for it.
But I feel a call to shift our perspective. To see the good. To thank God that He put us here for this time.
One of my friends said the other day, “You know how we’re always saying how bad things are in the world? Well, people in Noah’s time were so bad that God completely started over. But He hasn’t wiped us out yet, so we must not be as bad as that.”
While we all laughed and joked about it at the time, it got me thinking. God has hope for our country. He sees it’s not the end yet. I think He wants us to love where we live. And if we want to make a difference here, we need to love this country—because it’s far easier to bring lasting change to something you cherish than to something you despise.
So however you’re celebrating this Independence Day, take a moment to thank God for the United States of America and pray that we would be a nation marked by justice, mercy, and humility.