Our Need to Return to "In God We Trust"

Somewhere on U.S. currency you'll find these four words - "In God We Trust." This tradition started back in 1864 being printed on the then two-cent coin. Back in the Civil War era there was great religious sentiment and that began the work of having the inscription placed on money. In 1865 it was placed on the gold double-eagle coin, the gold eagle coin, the gold half-eagle coin, the silver dollar coin, the half-dollar coin, and the quarter-dollar coin. Since 1938, all U.S. coins have that inscription on them. The inscription was first used on paper money in 1957 on the one-dollar silver certificate.

Some will argue that it shouldn't be there at all - usually it's from those who don't believe in God to begin with. Whether atheist or other religious affiliation, people have started to question the purpose of having that inscription on the currency. People, if you haven't noticed, the world around us is not in great shape. Those of us that believe in God are in prayer and fasting in hopes that God will have mercy on us until His return.

I believe that this inscription was more than just a faith-based sentiment by those of the 19th century, but in some way it was a reminder that our true currency is through God. Without Him, nothing can move, nothing can be, and nothing can become. We're living in a society where prayer has been removed from schools, "X" is where "Christ" should be in Christmas, and people are speaking loudly to remove God from everything, but if they only knew what kind of effects this will have in our world.

I'm not being sacrilegious and saying that if we remove the inscription you're all going to hell. Of course that is not the case! A few words on a dollar bill will not send you to heaven or hell. My point is more that it's not what we say but what we do that matters. It's only what we do for God that will last in the end. We can have it over every bill ever printed but if we do not trust Him, we will be lost.

Scripture explicitly tells us to trust Him in all our ways and to lean to His understanding; through this our paths will be directed. As a people we tend to look out for ourselves and attend to our own business and make it for ourselves. What we forget is that God is concerned about others, as we should be. Somewhere between simplicity and convenience we lost sight of that. We crave for things to be easier for us, even if it's in spite of things being harder for someone else.

We need to return to "In God We Trust." This isn't about money, but about our society and our culture. In a world where stocks can rise and fall after one news report... in a world where fashion changes as quickly as who's #1 on the Billboard charts... in a world where love is defined by what you've done for me lately... our trust needs to be in Him, not in people. Should we trust people, yes, but only to a point. Our full trust needs to be in the One who made us - God.

Source:

U.S. Treasury- Fact Sheet on the History of "In God We Trust"
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/fact-sheets/currency/in-god-we-trust.shtml