Troop Prayer Thread 10 - A Year of VICTORY!

THREE CHEERS FOR OUR WONDERFUL TROOPS, THEIR ALLIES, AND ALL WHO ARE SERVING IN SUPPORT CAPACITIES IN THE WAR ON TERROR! YOU HAVE GIVEN THIS NATION A YEAR OF VICTORY IN THAT WAR! The honor is yours, but know that we bask in your accomplishments and love you for your steadfast service on this day!

Welcome, everyone to the 10th Troop Prayer Thread! Today is the anniversary of the resumption of hostilities with Iraq, wherein our troops have made military history that shall ring down the centuries.

The troop prayer threads are dedicated to giving our troops, allies, and all who are serving the Holy Cause of Freedom, including (but not limited to) the families and loved ones waiting at home and those who are not in uniform but who are serving in dangerous situations supporting our troops and gathering intelligence spiritual support. We seek together to offer prayer, scriptures, encouraging messages, and other devotions dedicated to this purpose.

We have over the past year gathered together a prayer list of these servants of freedom. You will find it posted below. FReeper amom has been serving as our List Keeper this past year and I wish to thank and commend her for doing such a meticulous job of keeping it updated. She has also been keeping our ping list up to date. If you wish to submit a name for the prayer list or to add or take off a name from the ping list, please let either or both of us know.

For those of us who have somewhat limited computer capacity, or still have phone modems, we request that graphics be limited to pictures of loved ones for whom we are offering prayers, special visuals that seem particularly appropriate, and as much as possible, non-moving graphics. Thank you.

Thank you so much for spiritually supporting our troops, allies, support civilians, and their families.

We are grateful to God that for those who have been injured or taken back Home, He has dispatched angels to their care.

Troop Prayer Thread 8:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/994696/posts?page=451,50

Troop Prayer Thread 6:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/917197/posts?page=301,50

Troop Prayer Thread 3:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/873600/posts?page=151,50

For those who wish to pay their respects and honor our Fallen Heroes, please visit this thread:

Dear Lord,
Lest I continue
My complacent way
Help me remember
Somewhere out there
A man died for me today
--As long as there be war
I then must
Ask and answer
Am I worth dying for?"

Taken from the book, "A Man Called Intrepid" by William Stevenson about William Stephenson, the head of British intelligence services prior to and during WWII. He wrote this at the very beginnings of the Battle of Britain and shared it with Eleanor Roosevelt.

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

AMERICA, WE LOVE YOU!
AMERICA, WE LOVE YOU!
AMERICA, WE LOVE YOU!
AND OUR LOVE IS GREAT ENOUGH TO HOLD YOU ETERNALLY VICTORIOUS IN THE LIGHT!

Merciful Father of Us All,

We come before you in deep mourning for the loss the of the Americans who were serving the Holy Cause of Freedom in Fallujah. Not only do we mourn their loss, but we mourn the fact that their bodies were treated with contempt and scorn. Father, we do not understand the depths of darkness that would cause people, among them children, to desecrate the dead in this way with such abandoned glee.

Father, we know that there are those in that area of Iraq who are desparately holding on to the way of life they had under Saddam Hussein, and they powerfully resent the changes brought to them in recent days. We know too, that there are thousands if not millions of other Iraqis who are grateful for the liberation brought to them. Father, we ask that you will guide our President and our leaders as to the proper measured response this maltreatment of those who were bringing supplies to this area warrants. Let those who are tasked with whatever the reply shall be have your blessing, guidance, and protection. We ask that you will place your hands over any and all innocents during any retaliatory actions and that you will keep them safe by your power and mercy. Let only your Will be done.

Father, we ask that you will surround the families of those who have lost their loved ones in this savage incident, and heal the searing wounds they must be feeling in this hour. Heal the loved ones of those lost in Somalia from a similar incident who are possibly having their own wounds reopened. Father, we plead with you that such incidents may not be repeated. Guide our leaders as to the best of all possible actions which will bring to a close the temptation for the insurgents to indulge in this type of mayhem.

Let our nation be granted a constant Vision of what we are seeking to accomplish in defeating those who desparately desire to kill all of us, if they could. We know there are forces within our own institutions who do not share the Vision of the need to vanquish those who would destroy Freedom in this nation and on the planet. We ask that you will intervene in all media coverage of this savage action and not allow it to be used in any way to dissuade our people and leaders from your own Plan and Vision for what we must do in our War On Terror.

We completely surrender our nation and our leaders and our people into your keeping, for you are our own Father, and in you, our God, we trust. Despite the fact that there are also forces abroad which are presently seeking to take from us that motto in all our public places, we do affirm in this hour that "IN GOD WE TRUST!!" Not only do we trust you, Father, but we cling to you and know that you are the only answer and key to the salvation of all tests and problems and challenges facing us in this hour.

Father, if we have prayed amiss in any way, we ask that you will take the fervor of our prayers and align them into your own perfect Will. We ask that as we gather together in our worship places, in our own families, and as we pray individually, that you will take our prayers and multiply them so that the equation of the forces of your own Light and Goodness in our world may increase. All of this we ask to be done according to the power and love of the Ancient of Days of the Old Testament and/or according to the love and mercy borne by the Messiah portrayed in the New Testament. Let all who adore you, our Father, be united before you in prayer, and let our offerings be acceptable unto you.

Amen

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