May 7, 2021 Brethren Letter
Dear Brethren,
“…From the founding of this nation, Americans have claimed the ancient promise, that if His people who are called by His name will humble themselves in prayer and seek His face, that He will hear from Heaven and heal their land.” (Former U.S. Vice President, Mike Pence)
Yesterday (May 6th), was the annual observance of the “National Day of Prayer” as designated by the United States Congress, officially signed into law in 1952. In that year, it was declared that each subsequent U.S. President from that point forward would proclaim a “National Day of Prayer.”
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan stated…
“From General Washington’s struggle at Valley Forge to the present, this Nation has fervently sought and received divine guidance as it pursued the course of history. This occasion provides our Nation with an opportunity to further recognize the source of our blessings, and to seek His help for the challenges we face today and in the future.”
This nation has received innumerable blessings since its founding. Sadly, many Americans don’t understand why we have received those blessings. For the most part, we have not given thanks to God for them. I wonder how many Americans are even aware that there is an OFFICIAL “Day of Prayer” in the United states? Probably, not many!
Here is part of what Mr. Armstrong wrote in the booklet The United States and Britain in Prophecy concerning the blessings given to us as a nation (pages 156-157):
How did we come into possession of all this vast wealth of the earth? Did we acquire it through our own human wisdom, foresight, energy, ability and power?
Let Abraham Lincoln answer: “We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards fertility of soil, extent of territory, and salubrity of climate … We … find ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or the establishment of them.”
Again, in his proclamation of April 30, 1863, for a nationwide day of fasting and prayer, this great President said: “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God … 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 …. We have been the
recipients of the choicest blessings of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation ever has grown; BUT WE HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD! We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.”
And because Lincoln saw a nation who had forgotten God — a nation drunk with a success not due to its own efforts — a nation taking all the credit and glory to itself, this great president called upon the nation for a day of fasting and prayer to confess this national sin before God. The fate of the nation hung in the balance when he issued that proclamation. But God heard and answered that great national prayer offensive — and the nation was then preserved!
But today the threat to our fate is a thousand times more seriously hanging in the balance. And today we do not have a president or a prime minister with the vision, understanding and courage to bring our nations to their knees!
Abraham Lincoln knew these great material blessings had not been earned, but had been given to our people by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel.
And we should face the facts today and know that we were given all this vast unprecedented material wealth because God promised it, unconditionally, to Abraham. And He promised it to Abraham because Abraham obeyed God, kept God’s laws and commandments.
Through Abraham’s obedience to the GREAT God, we have received many blessings.
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. (Genesis 12:2)
And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. (Genesis 17:2-4)
Because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws. (Genesis 26:5)
God has truly bestowed MANY abundant blessings upon us. We live in a time that many Americans don’t even realize where those blessings have come from. God’s people should NEVER take those many, abundant blessings for granted!
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).
Have a wonderful Sabbath, everyone!
Your Brother in Christ,
Gary Liebold