On November 11, 1938, Americans were observing the end of one world war in the shadow of another. It was Armistice Day (now celebrated as Veteran’s Day), and 1938 marked exactly two decades after the cease-fire ending World War I.

While it seemed as if the lights had gone out on the other side of the ocean as Europe fell under the darkest totalitarianism the world had yet seen in the Third Reich, a song, penned by a Jewish-American composer, sent a beacon of hope and determination through the angry storm clouds of approaching war.

Richard Land
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

Decades earlier, Irving Berlin had written the song as patriotic entertainment for a military revue. When entertainer Kate Smith approached him with her plans for an anniversary broadcast on her weekly radio program, however, he thoroughly revised the lyrics with serious, prayerful intent. Through the power of radio, “God Bless America” became an instant success.

I don’t know that there has ever been a time in our nation’s history when prayer was any more desperately needed than it is at this hour.

Our television screens have been flooded with images of destruction and death:

from the grisly scenes of bombings and refugees pouring out of countries across the globe;

to the swath of devastation left by killer tornadoes and ravaging floods;

to the carnage of children and adults abducted from what they thought was safety.

Add to that the barrage that assaults us day after day on the news and in every form of media and entertainment, as we are subjected to sordid sexual details, profanity, violence, and endless variations on evil, and it is not hard to see that we really do need to pray.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Revive Our Hearts

Though there is much about this land that is still great and for which we can be grateful, “America the Beautiful”—the “land of the free and the home of the brave”—has also become the land of the selfish and the violent, the home of the fearful and the abused.

As we sift through the rubble of these tragedies, many are searching for explanations and solutions to our national condition. I believe the ultimate answers are found in the timeless truth of God’s Word.