“The greatest strength of America is it’s people.” That is a quote I heard many years ago. Our strength is not our land or our resources, it is the people. Over the years, our nation grew to be a great power because of the strength of the people. In recent years, it seems that our great strength has been failing as we grow older. Or, maybe it has nothing to do with age. Maybe we were wrong about the source of our strength.
I have thought a lot about that quote the last couple of years. “The greatest strength of America is its people.” It is not the strength of the people that made this nation great, it is the strength of our God that empowered the people. America was once know as a Christian nation. We knew that our strength did not come from us, but from God. We grew in strength and power among the nations and were blessed in our efforts. That doesn’t mean that everyone in America was a Christian, but the majority were and our leaders valued the biblical principles to live by.
Over time, we began to believe the quote that “the greatest strength of America is its people”. We began to rely on our own strength and wisdom, rather than the strength and wisdom of God. We decided we were too busy for church and our other activities were more important. We needed that time to play our sports, attend our classes and continue to build ourselves, because we are the greatest strength of America and I must be the best. We can no longer afford to take time out of our busy week to seek God first.
It is easy to fall into that trap and I see it often in individuals, businesses, governments, and even in our churches. The bigger we get, the more wealth we gain, the more attendance we get and the more “successful” we become, we begin to rely more and more on our own strength, rather than the strength of God. We lift up successful people an organizations for the things they have done and how great they are. There is another quote I read recently, that started me thinking about this even more.
The greatest weakness in the church today is that men keep looking over their shoulders for the approval of other men.
R.C. Sproul
This is not only true of our churches. It is true in our businesses, our politics, and in our own personal lives. We have become more interested in what other people think about us than in what God thinks. When we seek the approval of God, that is the only thing that matters. When we begin to rely on our own strength and not the strength of God, we fail. When our numbers become more important than our relationship with God, we fail. Our purpose is to glorify God.
Earthly wealth comes and goes. Fame comes and goes. What was popular 10 years ago is no longer popular, but could be again in another 10 years.
Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
James 1:9-11
It is not wrong to have wealth and be in leadership. What is wrong is to rely on that wealth and position as our strength, rather than rely on God. God is the one that gives wealth and God can take it away, even while we are working hard.
There are many campaign slogans that revolve around “make America great again”. It is not a candidate or a political party that can make America great. The greatest strength of America is not its people. The greatest strength of America is the God that gives strength to his people.
