Let Freedom Ring
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In his message, King evoked the of memory of Lincoln and the dream of full emancipation, mobilizing both white and black supporters of desegregation and prompting the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Pray:
Spirit of God, teach us to pray Your dream for America; search us, refine us. Sharpen us, Word of God, with the Sword of the Spirit.
(Matt. 6:9-15; Ps. 139:23-24; Heb. 4:12)
Declare:
- Let heaven’s freedom ring from sea to shining sea (Isa. 45:8)!
- Jesus is setting captives and prisoners free from the bondage of tyranny and oppression (John 8:36, Luke 4:18-19).
- Courage to the believers to stand up and speak truth and words of life into our spheres of influence, sowing seeds of hope into hearts and minds (Acts 4:31).
- From MLK’s Dream speech: “This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, ‘My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. The land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.’” (lyrics from “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”)
Call forth the seed of “I Have a Dream”:
“…And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Full text of speech: https://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html
