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Posted on 03/20/2003 10:26:30 AM PST by TEXOKIE
If you desire to communicate with others who are devoted to our troops and their families, we invite you to come to the USO Canteen Freeper Style which has also issued a call to prayer.
Amom has requested that I repost on this thread the prayer which I submitted to the Canteen thread for today, and I am honored to comply.
PRAY FOR THE BATTLE IS BEGUN
Our Father in Heaven,
We are gathered here together before you because our President has made the official announcement that we have recommenced hostilities against Iraq. While we have actively been involved in war since September 11, 2001, this is a bit different. We are actually using our armed might to effect the final regime change in another nation state with which we have been in a war of containment for 12 years.
Father, we are grateful that you have written in your Law in Matthew 18:20 that "when two or more are gathered in your name, there you will be." You have also placed in your Law Matthew 18:19
"Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. "
Father, using these two laws, we ask that you will take the prayers of all who post and lurk on this forum and the prayers of our many brothers and sisters who love you and Freedom's Cause throughout the world and grant our President extraordinary guidance. We ask that you will grant extraordinary guidance to all officers and people in the civilian chain of command who have any kind of decision authority over our troops and our allies' armed forces.
We ask that you will place your arm of protection and legions of angels from the bands who surround your Throne around each and every precious soldier who is fighting for the liberation of Iraq's embattled people and the freedom and survival of this nation and our civilization. We ask that if it is at all possible, you would place around each one a ring of your Light which would be charged with your Protection, Invincibility, Invulnerability, and Invisibility rendering them safe from the forces of darkness seeking to harm them. We ask all of this for all of our young men and women under arms, no matter where they are posted.
Father, you have granted us extraordinary might. You have blessed this nation so abundantly with miraculous technology. How could this be? By your grace, we as a nation have in the past passed tests of power. How could you trust such awesome power to a people whose only desire is to use it for the self-agrandizement of the rulers? Surely, you would not grant such power to a people who would lightly use or misuse it.
We have never in our history gone to war in order to conquer. We would much rather stay home and go about our own business pursuing happiness as our Founding Fathers wrote. But time and again, we have found despots seeking to imprison and abuse innocent people, and we have spent our treasure and the blood and lives of our precious young ones alongside our allies in the effort to set things right.
Because of those efforts, since the year 1776 with the beginning of our Revolution there are now in existence MANY countries who now have a representative form of government. These free governments have not been known to war on each other. The implications of this fact are astonishing when pondered, and we are grateful for your guiding hand which has used this nation as the instrument for bringing most of them about.
Surely it is because we have consistently as a people followed the example of our first President, George Washington, who, when offered the kingship of America, renounced it so that the Constitution and Rule of Law would be king and not an individual, that you have granted us such breathtaking technology. We time and again have handed over the reins of power to the leaders of the liberated nations.
Our President George W Bush has pledged to continue this habit. By your grace we will liberate Iraq by that overwhelming might. By your grace and might we will help them to assemble some kind of representative form of Government. By your grace we will go home when it appears that you and the new government have things firmly in hand.
Father, we are grateful for this gift of overwhelming might and technology, for with it, we have the vision that we will be able to fight and win this war quickly with a minimum of destruction of property and loss of life on both sides.
We ask that you will place your hands on Godly people whom you would choose to serve the Iraqi people in their new government. Grant these new leaders you will cause to be chosen the same extraordinary guidance we have called forth for our own leadership. Guide these new leaders during that messy process of putting together a representative form of government. While we are at it, we also pray this same thing for the new government aborning in Afghanistan.
Father, we are aware that those who never say die, those who refuse to bend the knee to you have such hatred that they would seek to take as many lives with them as possible in the moments of their final death throes. We ask that you would intercede and render ineffective any and all attempts on the part of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen to launch his chemical, biological or radiological weapons against his own people or our soldiers and our allies.
Father,we have heard rumors that the Iraqi government plans to dress their soldiers in allied uniforms and commit atrocities against the Iraqi people on camera so as to besmirch the image and integrity of the allied soldiers. Father, if this is true, we beseech you to expose this lie and this darkness and neutralize it as a means to harm us.
Father, there are many who have concerns about the war precipitating another round of terrorist attacks on this nation and her allies. Father, we ask that you will place a big spotlight on any and all such plans or activities. We ask that you would position at least one of your children, whether police officer, federal officer from one of our law enforcement or intelligence agencies, or an alert citizen, in place to observe the danger and give timely warning.
As much as your great law will allow, protect our public buildings, meeting places, places of worship, transportation, infrastructure, schools, and all other institutions which could be targeted. We express our gratitude that you have already granted this prayer many times over since the initial 9/11/01 attacks.
Father, we are concerned about our union. Some of our precious brothers and sisters are idealistic and have fallen prey to the sophistry of those who cry " 'PEACE PEACE' and there is no peace." We are concerned that there are those among us who would seek to launch a Fifth Column attack within our borders on our nation and the morale of her people and troops through anti-war demonstrations. Father, we are deeply grateful that we do live in a land where such activities are tolerated. We would not take from them that right to express themselves.
However, Father, we would ask that if that activity crosses the line and becomes harmful to our nation and is no longer simply the exercise of expressing a difference of opinion, you would intercede. If possible, we would ask that those who are well-meaning might have an epiphany and awaken to the need to rethink their position. For those who have aligned themselves with sinister forces who love not this nation and seek to destroy her, we would ask that you intercede by stripping them of their power and rendering their efforts ineffective.
We do not seek harm to anyone, but only that by your grace, you will judge righteous judgement and let only your will be done in the unfoldment of all of these events. Above all, we are asking that you would wash this nation with a great wave of a desire for unity and patriotism, despite any and all opposition to it.
Father, we are grateful for this time and space of opportunity. We are grateful to be living in these times, difficult as they are. We are grateful that you have given us your Law and have empowered us to be warriors of the spirit alongside our young people who are on the battlefield. Father, take all of our prayers which we who love this nation and Freedom's Cause are offering throughout the world and make of them a huge grid of light which can indeed be for the changing of the equation of light versus dark upon our planet.
Father, we have been told we are battling Principalities and Powers of darkness. Grant us each the vision, Father that our own individual little widow's mite of daily prayer can indeed be just the one vote that will cause the Victory to be won. Remind us urgently daily to pray, for the battle is begun. Victory is never in doubt where Heaven is concerned, but our prayers here on earth are votes which ratify that Victory.
Father, we are grateful to be able to gather together to pray so powerfully for the Victory. Obtain for us, Father, by your might and grace, that Victory. Once it is obtained, seal it in your impenetrable flames so that the Victory cannot be stolen by those who would be the spoilers. Bring our precious young people home safe and sound and by your grace and timing.
Father, we ask that all of our prayers which we place upon your altar are adjusted and made perfect according to thy Holy Will.
Amen
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And thank you for posting the thread...what a great idea!
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