This week, one of the members of our church family sent me the following article, which is a reminder of how much people once understood how vital strong godly leadership is not only to the success, but to the very survival of America.
On November 1, 1800, John Adams became the first U.S. President to move into the White House. The following day he wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail, in which he composed a beautiful prayer. A portion of John Adams' prayer was inscribed on the mantlepiece in the State Dining Room by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It reads:
"I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this
house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it.
May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."
(Copied from: An American Minute.)
The person who sent me this email added the comment, “I'm afraid his prayer is no longer being answered.” I think this fear is legitimate. But why is this so? Why is it to be questioned that God is not answering prayers like the one composed and prayed by John Adams? Is it because people aren’t praying or is it because people are trying to pray, but are incapable of having their prayers answered because of sin in their lives that they are unwilling to give up. Believers today need to understand what the Psalmist understood who wrote: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Ps. 66:18).
Godly male leadership is needed desperately today! It is needed in homes, in churches and at every level of government. Let’s look at these three areas in reverse order:
In the Home
Men are to provide godly leadership in their homes to their wives and children (Eph. 5:23; 6:1,2; 1 Pet. 3:1-7). This is the way God designed for marriages to work best and for children to be raised successfully and grow up to be good, happy, God-fearing adults. Any Christian man who isn’t giving godly leadership to his family needs to get busy doing so. If you aren’t good at it, you need to get good at it! Get on your knee's and ask God to help you, get into your Bible and see what the God has to say about it There are other good books on the subject to read that will help you. Get help from your pastor. If your wife and/or isn’t and doesn’t respond and cooperate as they should, keep trying to do what you should anyway and God will help you. He’ll either change their hearts or deal with them as only He can! The Main thing is for men to stand up on their legs and endeavor, through their obedience and by faith, to dp and be what God has commanded them to do and be in their families.
Men are Needed in Churches
It was to a local New Testament Church that Paul wrote, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Cor. 16:14). To many men in far too many churches are not setting a good example of godly, manly leadership in the churches they belong to. The only sense in which they ever “step up to the plate” where church affairs are concerned is in the fellowship hall when there’s a meal being served. But men need to be workers in the church, watching for things that need to be done whether big or small and and then doing what they can to help. They need to be be courageous and ready, in this age of apostasy to stand for truth and be ready to protect their church from wolves. There is no better admonition for men today than this: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong!”
How About the Nation?
Never in the history of this nation have godly leaders been so desperately needed and at the same time more scarce. Never have their been more moral ciphers, mental midgets, and general misfits “serving” in government offices at all levels than there are today. Maybe it’s time for more and more Christian men to take political office and then as much as possible, take over, for the glory of God while we wait for the Lord to come (Luke 19:13). Maybe it’s time for godly men to get involved, as good stewards of what God has given us, and try to rescue this nation from the grip that Satan has gotten on it through the influence of ungodly men.
The world has room for the manly man, with the spirit of manly cheer;
The world delights in the man who smiles when his eyes keep back the tear;
It loves the man who, when things are wrong, can take his place and stand
With his face to the fight, and his eyes to the light, and toil with a willing hand;
The manly man is the country's need, the moment's need forsooth,
With a heart that beats to the pulsing troop of the lilied leagues of truth; |
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