Isaiah 59:10 “We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.”
Job 12:25 “They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.”
As the end of June approached in 1787 and the temperatures rose in Philadelphia, so did the tempers at the Constitutional Convention. After several weeks of debate and deliberation, the men that were assembled there faced several impasses that threatened to derail the new nation before it even began. Recognizing the precariousness of the situation, the elder statesman Dr. Benjamin Franklin rose to his feet to state the following:
“In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, 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 Great 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 establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?”
Ben Franklin, a man not known for a religious fervency, recognized the fruitlessness of continuing on in the absence of daily prayer for our nation. What sense did it make to grope about in darkness when the light was readily available? What sense did it make for them to imagine that they no longer needed the Lord’s assistance? What sense did it make to depart from the proven instances of superintending providence in their favor? Apart from God, the loose collection of states had no hope of joining into a viable nation. Apart from God, they were destined to stumble at noonday as in the night.
The same is true today. Apart from God, we are destined to stumble at noonday as in the night. Apart from God, we have little hope of remaining a viable nation. What sense does it make to grope about in darkness when the light is readily available? What sense does it make for us to imagine that we no longer need the Lord’s assistance? What sense does it make to depart from the proven instances of superintending providence in our nation’s favor? The answer to these rhetorical questions is the same as in Dr. Franklin’s time; it makes no sense.
PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD RECOGNIZE THE FRUITLESSNESS OF CONTINUING ON IN OUR NATION IN THE ABSENCE OF DAILY PRAYER.