Vital Engagement For a Better Life

Ramon Arias | September 19, 2016

The nation is immersed in political ideologies, and no one escapes the outcome of that reality, and I mean no one. Politics is filled with conflicting visions for the nation and the further we travel that road the more dangerous it becomes.

The United States of America was not born to promote a multiplicity of visions for society and yet she expects to have a stable society. During election time beware of those who affirm that they’re not interested in politics, yet, at the same time, criticize how bad things are and how they are getting worse; do they make any sense?

If you profess the Christian faith, you should be able to understand the times we’re living in, and how the attacks against our faith are increasing, very similar to what is taking place in most nations of the world.

Do you know where the candidates stand? Do your homework and find out what their convictions are about religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage, federal judges, human rights, poverty, law and order, terrorism, immigration, national defense, Internet decency, and the economy. You must apply the same principle to your local and state elections. Casting an irresponsible vote should never be done, that is not the trait of an informed citizen or, least of all, that of a true Christian. Every issue is vital and so is doing your homework to fully understand all of them; this is crucial, especially before casting a vote. 

Embracing the admonishment of the Psalmist, in the passage below, is great encouragement and shows us the way on how we ought to approach and solve the present situation that goes beyond our moral obligation for voting:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!” Psalm 111:10 (ESV)

Let us remember Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation that he signed on March 30^th, 1863, to designate a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer set on April 30th, 1863; this was when the states were at war with each other over one well-known issue. This part of American history should remind us why it is vital that we engage for a better life to not arrive at such devastating effects. The bold emphasis is added to draw more attention to the challenge before us:

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and

Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;

And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this my proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.