Today is National Day of Prayer…
PHOTO: Lincoln figured it out at places like the Battlefield of Antietam.
(smithsonianmag.com)
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination on our part to surmise that powerful men and women of position are just like us in that everyone comes to the end of their own power and abilities at some point - and hopefully sooner than later.
King Solomon earned a Ph.D. before he was 20 with regard to the limitations of a ruler as the son of Israel’s most noted monarch. With all of King David’s grip on his kingdom, his son Absalom came close to dethroning David while scandalous sibling rivalries, murders and intrigue abounded under the roof of the palace. Perhaps with some of this in mind, Solomon’s keen thoughts on his limitations emerged in this prayer:
“But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:7-9 NIV)
Flash-forwarding to Abraham Lincoln who visited Civil War battle sites and personally internalized the tragic aftermath of those conflicts admitted to his own limitations:
“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”
True greatness comes from realizing our position in relation to God.
While it is not only presidents who need to learn this truth, it would behoove us to pray for all of our leaders to come to this conclusion…and sooner than later.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: A country whose leaders depend on God also obeys His laws. That opens up portals of blessings.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men from the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works. No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
Psalm 33:12-19