How to Pray for Deployed Troops
Outline of Talk Given at Trinity in January, 2011
Please Pray for Our Troops
U.S. Army Captain Jedidiah Wentz, son of Pastor David and Paula, spoke to the congregation on Sunday, January 9. Home on mid-deployment leave from the 101st Division in Kandahar, Afghanistan, CPT Wentz gave us seven pointers on how to pray for our troops in the war zone.
- Safety: for all our troops, and innocent civilians
- Wisdom: for military leaders at every level
- Local buy-in: for elders in every village to decide to trust and support the forces of freedom instead of the Taliban
- Logistics: equipment, weapons, supplies and intelligence for coalition troops, and a failure of all these for the enemy
- Discernment: to know who among the locals can be trusted
- Victory: for the forces of violence and oppression to be routed and long-lasting peace, freedom, justice, stability and provision to be established.
- Relationships: for marriages and other relationships to be strengthened during stressful times of separation
CPT Wentz also added that for Christian troops, especially those in the smaller outposts, it is important to pray that they find good Christian fellowship.
CPT Wentz was very grateful for all our prayers. He said sometimes he can feel our prayers. He believes prayers are a major reason that his squadron, though in the hottest part of the fighting, has had the lowest casualties in their brigade.
Everyone is invited to join the Troops Prayer Group, meeting every Tuesday morning from 8:00 to 8:30am in the Trinity chapel room. If you can’t make it then, please pray whenever you can!
Psalm 91 - A Powerful Prayer for Protection
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most
High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 They say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my
fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler ’s
snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find
refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and
rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at
midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your
dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your
tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a
stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the
serpent.
14 “Because they love me,” says the LORD,
“I will rescue them;
I will protect them, for they acknowledge my
name.
15 They will call on me, and I will answer them;
I will be with them in trouble,
I will deliver them and honor them.
16 With long life I will satisfy them
and show them my salvation. ”
Let us continue to invoke the very real power of prayer over all our troops until
there is no more need.