Adopt a Revolutionary Motto for Your Life – Chapter 16
In the early formation of our nation George Washington had the opportunity to become king of the
burgeoning nation. But given the young nation’s experience with England and because he had a robust
prayer life he knew there was only one King, so he declined the offer.
The people of the land apparently knew the same. “In a 1774 report to King George, the Governor of
Boston noted: ”If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor
but Jesus Christ.” The pre-war Colonial Committees of Correspondence soon made this the American
motto: “No King but King Jesus.”
The story of God’s chosen people might have gone very differently had they chanted the same motto.
Instead, they wanted a king. Over the period of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah there were thirty-eight
kings. Only five of them were good. Of the others a refrain heard throughout the Old Testament goes
like this: “They did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”
Prophets appeared exhorting the people to turn back to God. God spoke through one prophet—Isaiah—
to tell the people of Judah that they would be captured and deported to Babylon but afterward he would
bring them back home. The purpose? “Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me
will not be disappointed. Then the whole human race will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” (Isaiah 49:23).
In Isaiah 53 the prophet depicts the coming Messiah. “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of
suffering, and familiar with pain” (Isaiah 53: 2, 3). God did not want the people to miss him. But they
did. And still do.
Our nation would have gone a much different route had Washington agreed to be king. But he seemed
to know what many others didn’t. When we displace God on the throne of our lives, the outcome will
go horribly wrong. But when we put God on the throne in our lives, we put ourselves in the best possible
position for godly success.
Maybe our American ancestors knew the best way to start a revolution. Adopt the motto “No King but
King Jesus” in your life. See what changes that ignites in your life.
1 Idea from Randy Frazee’s sermon on The Story, Chapter 16. Reference from “Is America a Christian Nation?”
CARL PEARLSTON http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/politics/pg0040.html
Read The Story. Experience The Story. Used with permission © Zondervan 2010
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