A Chinese businessman came to study the secret of America’s success. He and his colleagues examined everything, the military, the political system, the economic structure. At first they thought it was the guns. Then they thought it was the political system. Then the economy. But after twenty years of studying the West, they arrived at a different conclusion: “The heart of your culture is your religion, Christianity. That is why the West is so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.” He saw it from the outside more clearly than many Americans see it from the inside.

Biblical illiteracy may be the single greatest threat to this nation today. Not the national debt, though that is serious. Not foreign adversaries, though they are real. Not political polarization, though it is deep. When God’s people do not know God’s Word, something always rushes in to fill that void. And what fills it is not wisdom. It is confusion, manipulation, ideological toxin, and fear. The moral backbone of a free society is not legislation. It is people who know what is right and why, people whose consciences have been formed by Scripture and whose lives demonstrate the fruit of that formation.

God’s battle plan for Joshua before he led Israel into the Promised Land was not a military strategy. It was a reading assignment. Meditate on the Word day and night. Keep it in your mouth. Do according to what is written in it. And the result? You will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success. This was the path to national victory, not chariots or swords but the Word of God, deeply received, consistently obeyed, passed from one generation to the next.

The same five practices that worked for Joshua work for you. Hear God’s Word, gather with His people, under the preaching of Scripture. Read it, with daily discipline, going through its pages rather than sampling at random. Study it, going deep, asking questions, wrestling with the text. Memorize it, hiding it in your heart so it is available in the battle. And meditate on it, turning it over in your mind, letting it shape the way you see everything else. These are not religious duties. They are the habits of people who know that Scripture is alive, that the Author speaks, and that the person who builds on this foundation will not be swept away when the storm comes.

America needs a generation that knows the Bible. Not a generation that owns one; most Americans own several. A generation that reads it, believes it, lives it, and passes it to their children. If you want to know what will change this nation more than any election, more than any law, more than any political movement, it is this. Open God’s Word. Read it. Obey it. And refuse to let a single day go by without letting God speak into your life from Scripture.