soverignty – Amy Linnea

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. Psalm 33:12a

As America celebrates its first 250 years, wherever we call home in this great big world, we can thank God for giving us life.

Some of us have more life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than others in different countries.

But we all have our precious Lord, who goes with us wherever we go. His soverignty over all.

As America celebrates, I’ll share this hymn called “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Written in 1862 by Julia Ward Howe, it’s America’s Civil war hymn. At a time when our country was repairing itself from being torn to shreds, these words helped bind our wounds.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of this terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read the righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; O be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, while God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on!!!!!

So what does God’s sovereignty look like in America’s story?

It looks like thirteen colonies—separate, independent, unlikely to agree on anything—somehow uniting into one nation. The odds were against it. But our founders knew it. They wrote about it. They thanked God for it. They understood that Providence, not just patriotism, had stitched us together.

It looks like a nation that nearly broke itself in two, and then—somehow—came back together. The Civil War could have ended us. We could have stayed fractured, bitter, divided beyond repair. But God is in the business of healing what we break. And slowly, painfully, we learned to be one nation again.

It looks like the Civil Rights Movement—when faithful men and women stood on Scripture and said, “No. This is not who we are called to be.” They didn’t just change laws. They changed hearts. Because the Gospel is more powerful than any statute ever written. God’s Word did what politics alone could never do.

It looks like survival. Wars that leveled other nations while we stood. Depressions that could have crushed us while communities of faith held each other up. Moments when everything felt fragile, uncertain—and yet, here we are. Provision. Protection. Grace.

Thank you God, for our freedom. Your provision. Your light in the darkness. Help us bend our will to Yours. You are sovereign over all: me, my family, and my country. In You, God, I place my trust.