Isa.12:3 Therefore with joy you will draw water
From the wells of salvation.

4    And in that day you will say:
“Praise the LORD, call upon His name;
Declare His deeds among the peoples,
Make mention that His name is exalted.
5 Sing to the LORD,
For He has done excellent things;
This is known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion,
For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”

The Lord visited a church in the remote western part of Massachusetts in 1734. No one knew at the time that this was the beginning of a great spiritual awakening that would effect the twelve colonies in what would become America. This was Northampton and the young pastor (thirty one years old) was a man by the name of Jonathan Edwards. This young pastor was a third generation Puritan whose forefathers had come to the New World 100 years before. An unprecedented outpouring began in his church which would spread to the other colonies by men such as Edwards and George Whitfield. Here is a quote from Edwards’ Thanksgiving message in 1735. His message still resounds centuries later.

“When God is thus in the midst {of a people}, ’tis just cause of {joy and shouts), that so great {and holy an one is amongst them}. ’Tis the greatest cause that a people can have to rejoice and to praise. Though they may be low in the world, they have greater cause of joy and thankfulness than if they abounded never so much in the wealth and good things of the world; more than if the earth should bring forth by handfuls, or the abundance and wealth of the seas should be gathered together to them, and the heavens should shower down silver and gold and pearls on them, and the rock should pour out rivers of oil to them. They have greater cause to rejoice and praise than they that find great spoils. Because of his being so great and holy a God, he is worthy to be exceedingly rejoiced in and praised.”

The Lord had plans for these colonies made up of mostly farmers. Thousands of them became Christians during the Awakening, their common testimony birthed a national identity. You could say they became “one nation under God”. In 1776 they became an independent nation and actually defeated the most powerful nation on earth in the war of independence. What is the message to us centuries later? God still has a plan for our country. We can discover His plan in our churches as He comes to visit our land again. America was birthed against impossible odds, her present condition also seems hopeless, maybe its time for the God of Jonathan Edwards to visit our land once again.