Have We Now Forgotten That Powerful Friend?

“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.