Restore Us to You, O Lord: A Prayer for America

For the last couple decades, prominent voices in our society have repeatedly asserted that the United States is not a Christian nation. This message has been drummed into our youth as historically accurate, but the Truth is these voices are attempting to rewrite our nation’s history. It is precisely our Biblical roots that have produced the freedom and flourishing we all enjoy today.

The values and ideals that have made America so great blossomed from the Bible. However, many are working to destroy our roots—while still clinging to the fruit. How can you have the fruit of the tree while destroying the roots of the tree?

OUR FUTURE NEEDS OUR FOUNDATION

I take to heart the old adage, “You don’t know where you’re going if you forget where you came from.” We must remember our foundation. When 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence, they were signing their declaration of dependence on their heavenly Father, concluding the document, “. . . with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Similarly, reflecting on the new nation in his 1796 address, George Washington wrote,

Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. . . . reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. . . . Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue?

Despots and rulers and dictators and socialists have been governing all over the world, even during Washington’s time. But he believed it impossible to rightly govern this great country apart from the wisdom and virtue of the Bible. Early American lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster declared, “There is no solid basis for civilization but in the Word of God. . . If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering; . . . if the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end.”

These are prophetic words in our day. Without the Bible, we will have neither values nor ideals but instead, anarchy. Even the 97^th U.S. Congress recognized the need for Scripture in Public Law 97-280, asserting,

Whereas the Bible, the Word of God, has made a unique contribution in shaping the United States as a distinctive and blessed nation and people; . . . Whereas Biblical teachings inspired concepts of civil government that are contained in our Declaration of Independence and the constitution of the United States; . . . Now, therefore, be it Resolved . . . That the President is authorized and requested to designate 1983 as a national “Year of the Bible” in recognition of both the formative influence the Bible has been for our Nation, and our national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.

The Founding Fathers were not skeptics, unbelievers, Muslims, nor Buddhists. They were men and women whose faith was rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever their denominational differences. It is because the men and women who founded this nation loved Jesus that they opened their hearts, their homes, their country to the world.

RETURNING TO OUR ROOTS

Today, too many leaders have become accessories to the destruction of this great nation because they are departing from foundational Truth. They are, indeed, contributing to our moral, financial, and ethical collapse. But departing from our roots does not change them. Though the courts, our education system, and politicians may separate from the principles upon which this nation was founded, the foundation remains unchanged. God’s Word shows us the path to restoration through the words of Jeremiah: “Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old . . .” (Lamentations 5:21).

Our days resemble those of Jeremiah, when God’s people foolishly forgot all that God had done for them. They denied God’s past blessings and bowed down to inanimate objects. They paid lip service to God and tragically squandered their heritage. Jeremiah understood that God had departed from His people because they had insisted on departing from Him. This is precisely the reason for our own moral decay, for the Church’s coldness and apostasy, for the fear under which our citizens suffer, and for the decline in beauty and goodness in our culture. We have rejected the one true God.

Like Jeremiah, we understand that it has been God who has protected this great nation in the past, who has blessed us and guided the ship of state by His divine power. And like Jeremiah, we must understand that only God can change hearts, drawing people back to Himself. So our cry must echo that of Scripture: Restore us to You, Lord! Like Jeremiah, our cry should be for America to repent and turn to God—starting with us.

I don’t join the chorus of those who say there is no hope for spiritual awakening. I know my God. He is more than willing to extend mercy and grace to repentant sinners. He is the God of second chances. He longs to hear and answer the prayers of His faithful people—just look at Psalm 103: “[H]e does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (vv. 10-12).

So with confidence in God, let’s dare to be a Jeremiah in our time—and call upon the Lord to return us to Himself.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we come to You with humble hearts, grieving the ways our nation has strayed from Your Truth. You alone have blessed, protected, and guided us—and only You can restore us. Forgive us for forgetting Christ, for exchanging Your Word for the empty promises of the world. Like Jeremiah, we cry out: Restore us to Yourself, Lord, that we may return. Revive Your Church. Awaken this generation. Save those who are lost in spiritual darkness. And may repentance begin with us. In Your mercy, draw us back to You. Amen.