“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.”

— Jeremiah 18:7–8

Do you ever stop and think about the freedom you enjoy in this country? Have you ever thanked someone who has fought for that freedom? We owe a tremendous debt to those men and women who have served in our armed forces so that we might remain free in this country. And yet we so often forget their sacrifices. All have sacrificed time. Some have sacrificed limbs or eyesight or hearing. Just walk around a veterans’ hospital one day, and look at the permanent wounds of those who have made some kind of sacrifice for this country.

But we so often take those sacrifices—and the reason they were made—for granted. Tragically, our country has forsaken, bit by bit, its original calling. Consequently, those who have served—including those who died in battle—might be dismayed at how far we’ve drifted from being one nation under God. One writer asked a disturbing question in a letter to the editor: “What would the veterans who died in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and Korea [and the Gulf, we might add]—by the hundreds of thousands—say if they could see the lifestyle in the United States today? Would they say, ‘Is this what I gave my life for? Was it worth it?’” So many in our country have taken liberty too far, using the term to justify whatever they want to do.

Today on Veterans Day, let’s remember those who served this country. Telephone or jot a note to a veteran, thanking that person for serving our country. Also, I ask you today to pray earnestly for our nation, that we would turn around and repent so that we may not lose our freedom, so that all those who have fought will not have done so in vain. God promises clemency for the nation that repents.

“No people ever lost their liberties unless
they themselves first became corrupt.”
Andrew Jackson