Devotion and Prayer 8-24-17
“Although
America has not always lived up to her own best principles, she has a great and
noble heritage. It would be a shame if
that heritage were to be squandered because of misunderstandings and
distortions of the Founders principles…Our task is to recover the truth…to
discern its strengths, to acknowledge its defects, and to pass on that
knowledge to future generations.
In 1779
Thomas Jefferson proposed a law that would have provided for gradual
emancipation in Virginia. In Congress in
1784, he proposed a law, which came within one vote of adoption, that would
have banned slavery from the entire Western territory of the United
States. In 1787 he published his widely
read book, Notes on the State of
Virginia, which contained the most eloquent denunciation of slavery written
by anyone in the founding era, and a detailed plan for the freedom of slaves
where children would be brought up, at public expense, to tillage, arts, or
sciences, according to their geniuses, . .. (till grown) and colonized, sending them out with arms, implements, of
household and of the handicraft arts, feeds, pairs of the useful domestic
animals, etc. to declare them a free and independent people, and extend to them
our alliance and protection, till they shall have acquired strength.”
Now, that
does not sound like the words of an evil racist elitist to me. These words are
just a small example from Vindicating the
Founders by author Thomas G. West. I
share this to help us to peer into the heart and mind of one of our beloved
founding fathers.
Let’s pray:
Our dear, gracious heavenly Father, we thank you that you created us in your
image and likeness with the ability to grow in knowledge and the capacity to
appreciate it. Help us to love and teach
others that which is “honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report and virtuous.
We are grateful for our great and noble heritage and we give you praise for it,
for Blessed is that nation whose God is
the Lord. We ask you O God, for your
continued mercy and favor. We beseech
you O Lord, for wisdom and guidance for all our leaders. Impress upon them the urgency of the hour and
the need to produce policy that is right in your sight and for the good of the
American people, in Jesus precious name we pray, amen.
