One Nation Under God

One Nation Under God is a phrase used in our pledge of allegiance that has strong meaning to it, but it has been challenged in the courts of our country by those who don't believe.
Today's passage in Jeremiah 1: 7 - 13 speaks of the nation of Israel, who were and are still God's chosen people. Yesterday I spoke about how they rebelled, and how we have also found ourselves "in the wilderness" and rebelled in our own ways too. There are always consequences to rebellion, and that is what the Lord was telling Jeremiah to tell the nation.
These verses are the Lord speaking.
"I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. The priests did not ask, ' Where is the Lord'. Those who deal with the law did not know me, and the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols. Therefore I bring charges against you again, declares the Lord. And I will bring charges against your children's children. Cross over to the coasts of Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this: Has a nation ever changed its gods? ( Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appaled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror, declares the Lord. My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns - broken cisterns that cannot hold water".
In verse 8 it refers to the priests and leaders who rebelled against God. It is translated to mean that the ones in authority, those who led the people, led the way to apostasy. Sound familiar? Have we not seen this very thing in our own country? We have many who are in public office, and even those who are leaders of great churches and denominations who would rather be "politically correct" than to follow the laws and morals of our Lord.
In verse 11 the Lord asks, "Has a nation ever changed its gods?(Yet they are not gods at all)."
Our great nation seems to have fallen into this - the outrage of one athiest woman led to prayer being taken out of our schools; now we have others of like mind as she, who demand that "In God We Trust" be taken off our currency, and also "One Nation Under God" to be removed from our pledge of allegiance.
We are guilty of forsaking God, the only true source of living water, and are seeing Him replaced by "broken cisterns" - false ideologies and morals that are abominations to him.
I pray that our nation would realize its sin and repent. Again I go back to the verse from II Chronicles 7:14 - "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land".
Now is the time for us believers to make our voices be heard! We need to be on our knees praying for our country and its leaders, both those in political office, and those who are leaders in our churches. We need to pray that they will do exactly what God asks us to do in that verse, otherwise we can expect to reap the consequences of our nations sins.

Janelle