Psalm 33:12 – “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.”
One of my heroes is the sixteenth president of the United States who did tremendous things for our country, and he earned the lasting respect and loyalty of American citizens. But was he a Christian? A minister from Illinois just a few short months before Lincoln’s death asked him, “Do you love Jesus?” Lincoln responded, “When I left Springfield, I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But, when I went to Gettysburg, and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated my life to Christ. Yes, I do love Jesus.” (Source: William J. Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, The Christian, p.172).
Lincoln was a humble and forgiving person, and he exemplifies our need as a nation to humble ourselves before God. In our day, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we would do well to heed Lincoln’s words, “it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” (Source: “Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, March 30, 1863.” Abrahamlincolnonline.org). Today, let us humble ourselves before God, and ask Him to grant His mercy upon us.
