America’s fortunes have
always been dependent on God-fearing leaders who understood their power was
subservient to the throne of heaven. Let me remind you how that played out at
Valley Forge, PA during the worst winter days of the Revolutionary War.
Gen. George Washington’s
soldiers were cold, starving, undersupplied and desperate. More were dying of
exposure than from battle. There are reports that men were so hungry that they
were boiling their leather shoes to eat. Many of Washington’s freedom fighters
were seriously considering deserting and returning home. Elsewhere, the
American cause was slipping away. British armies occupied New York and
Philadelphia and the powerful British navy patrolled the coast.
Washington ordered the
army chaplains to conduct worship services for the troops, and he ordered his
men to take seriously the national day of prayer and fasting proclaimed by
Congress in April of 1778. One of Washington’s chaplains, thirty-year-old,
Israel Evans preached a sermon on the theme of thanksgiving from Psalm 115 on
the text, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory.” The
sermon hit home and copies of it spread through Valley Forge. Washington read
and endorsed the sermon, telling Evans, “It will ever be the first wish of my
heart to aid your pious endeavors to inculcate a due sense of the dependence we
ought to place in that wise and powerful Being on whom alone our success
depends.”
Israel Evans
The army gained renewed
morale, and later Washington said he hoped future generations would look back
on the American Revolution to see how the hand of God’s guidance had wrought
the miracle of liberty. Washington said, “The hand of Providence has been so
conspicuous in all of this that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks
faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his
obligations.”[1]
What would Washington
think of us today? Our nation has lost both its faith and gratitude, but I
haven’t lost hope. If God could reverse the fortunes of the Continental Army at
Valley Forge, He can reverse the tides of evil today. He can send a great
revival to our homeland if we repent and worship Him as we should. Our hope is
not in government, but in God. -DM
14 Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down
from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, 15 the stock that
your right hand planted . . . 18 Then we shall not turn back from
you; give us life, and we will call upon your name! 19 Restore us, O
Lord God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved! (Psalm
80:14-15, 18-19)
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