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“Have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or, do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance.”

That’s what eighty-one year old Benjamin Franklin asked the Founding Fathers at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. We know that all of them were Christians, since that was a universal requirement for all of the delegates. For the first four to five weeks, these Christian men could not agreed on anything. Then, they followed Franklin’s advice, worked together, created the United States Constitution, and the rest is history. The freedom that all Americans enjoy is derived from that document that God inspired in 1787.

This is Benjamin Franklin’s request for prayer at the Constitutional Convention:

How has it happened , Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. —Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.

All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of estalishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance.

I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that “except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded . . .

I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.

We have forgotten God too. It’s easy to do when everything is going well. But now that we’ve fallen onto hard times, we really need his help. We have to get to know God all over again. We have to read the Bible for ourselves and base our lives on it. We have to teach it to our children, by our example. They need to learn to do everything the Lord commands us to do.

They need to know what God has promised those of us who believe in him: When we humble ourselves and pray; and, when we seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways—he will heal our land.

Let me tell you a secret, the secret of America’s success. We have experienced more freedom and prosperity than any other nation. This did not happen by chance, and we didn’t do it on our own. God has blessed us more than any other nation on earth. Because we are his people, and America was founded on his word, he has done exactly what he said he would, through Moses:

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

The Lord shall establish thee a holy people unto himself, as he hat sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.

And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee tis day, to observe and to do them. Deuteronomy 28:1-13.

Then, the scripture describe all the curses that would overtake us if we turned away from God. The curses are the exact opposite of the blessings: That we would be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. That we would be the tail and not the head. That we would not lend but borrow.

Now, we are seeing that prophecy of the scripture being fulfilled. The United States is broke and in debt. Our cities are cursed along with our fields, and none of our enemies are afraid of us.

These things are happening to us because, as a nation, we have turned away from God. We are not showing any respect for him, or even acknowledging his existence. We are certainly not keeping his commandments. That prevents God from blessing us.

But it’s not too late. We can still repent of our sins and return to God. He says in his word that if we will humble ourselves and pray, and seek his face, and turn from our wicked ways, he will heal our land. This is what you can do to help turn our nation back to God:

Study the Bible. Learn what God requires of you and do exactly what he says. Teach your children to do the same.

If you are new to the Bible, I suggest that you read The Bible Believer’s Handbook. It is a summary of all of this information.

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and from to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.”  (Amos 8:1-3)

This scripture describes what America is like, now that she is God’s prodigal daughter. When she was  godly and righteous, her people were happy and prosperous. Now, as we go from one crisis to the next, there is always something to worry about.

But America still belongs to God. We are still his people and he loves us. We have an alliance with him. The United States of America was founded by Christians. Our government is built on God’s principles as they are revealed in the Bible. The original purpose of public schools was to teach children to read so that they could read the Bible for themselves. The original purpose of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton was to train ministers of the Gospel. The Bible was America’s textbook, and the knowledge of God was readily available throughout the land.

Fifty years ago, we heard God’s word everywhere we went—at home, in Sunday School and church, and even in school. I am part of the last generation of Americans to have been taught the Bible in public school, the Baby Boomers.

Schoolteachers used to be free to express their religious beliefs. They loved us, and they even prayed with us. They treated us like their own dear children. They didn’t just teach us how to read and write, they taught us how to live. They were not imposing their personality morality on us. There is no true morality apart from God and the Bible.

The Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Psalm 22:6) That is what American educators were doing fifty years ago. They had perfected the art of educating children. Thy gave us an excellent education, and the Bible is the foundation on which it was built. It is the foundation on which excellent lives are built and excellent nations are built.

When God gave us the Ten Commandments, he gave us these instructions to go along with them:

Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6:3-6)

What are these words that the Lord wants us to know? And what are we supposed to teach our children?  The answers to these questions can be found in Part Two of The Bible Believer’s Handbook, “Things God Expects Us To Do.”