We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity, having received in the choicest of bounties of heaven. We have grown in numbers wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied, and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the need for redeeming and preserving grace, and too proud to pray to the God who made us.
Was this message spoken and recorded today, yesterday, last month, or some other time? Brace yourself. This was a prayer spoken by President Abraham Lincoln on March 30, 1863. It clearly describes our cultural condition today. Lincoln’s words are as fresh as if they were just written. What do you think?
Dr. Lloyd Stebbins 
Lincoln’s message no longer describes our cultural condition today. We have thrown God out of our lives. Sad but true.
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But that’s exactly the point, Jaysee. Our culture has largely “thrown God out of our lives” or in Lincoln’s terms, “forgotten God.” Actually, surveys show that a very high percentage of Americans still identify themselves as Christians. But they have forgotten or never learned what it means to be a Christian, hold a pervasive Biblical worldview, and live according to that worldview. When properly understood, it is the most exciting life in the universe. There is still hope. We can be the spark that gets the fire going. My upcoming book is jam packed with powerful, practical suggestions to do just that. What do you think?
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Wow…rings true of our culture today. Many of us march through life feeling an emptiness inside… likely due to never being exposed to the beauty of having faith in our God.
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Lincoln’s comments and yours bring to mind this ancient Biblical confirmation: “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” [Deuteronomy 8:18] Let’s all be thankful to God on Thanksgiving day and every day. What do you think?
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I have to wonder however, have some people gone to the other extreme and taken God’s words and morphed them into something unholy altogether. Be it Jihad, hate crimes, or other hateful and abominable acts there are people out there claiming to act in the name of God without any true understanding or faith in the word of God. So we now have two extremes, those without faith and those who preach an untrue faith through ungodly acts claiming to be int eh name of God.
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Interesting comments, Angela. There will always be people who twist the words of others, whether they are the words of another person or the words of God. Personal pride that infects all people (the me-first kind of pride not the satisfaction of a job well done) virtually demands that words be understood in a way that favors the reader. If the words don’t directly favor the reader, the powerful mental tendency is to shape or interpret the understanding of the words in a way that tends to benefit the reader. The selfish nature of pride is an age-old problem. Maturity is a lifelong journey to transcend self and love others before self. What do you think?
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