It was the French historian Alexis DeTocqueville who observed, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Both personal and national “greatness” depend upon righteousness. A house built with rotten materials is destined for collapse. In the same manner, corrupt character leads to our own destruction. We can appear virtuous on the outside, while our inside is secretly decaying.

Consider the wise counsel from Samuel Adams, the “Father of the American Revolution”:

“The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While, on the other hand, if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves.”

We can go through the motions, as an invdividual or as a nation, having a form of godliness while denying the true power of Jesus to authentically transform us. The end result is form without substance, ritual without relationship, morals without virtue.

Revival and reformation on a national level begin with goodness and integrity at the heart level.