Author: John Page 107 of 164

I Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.”

Patton’s Training Letter 5 went on to state:

“Urge all of your men to pray, not alone in church, but everywhere. Pray when driving. Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for the cessation of immoderate rains, for good weather for Battle. Pray for the defeat of our wicked enemy whose banner is injustice and whose good is oppression. Pray for victory. Pray for our Army, and Pray for Peace.

We must march together, all out for God. The soldier who ‘cracks up’ does not need sympathy or comfort as much as he needs strength. We are not trying to make the best of these days. It is our job to make the most of them. Now is not the time to follow God from ‘afar off.’ This Army needs the assurance and the faith that God is with us. With prayer, we cannot fail.”

Sure enough, under the cover of bad weather, a surprise and powerful German counterattack came on December 16^th, 1944 against a disadvantaged Allied force. Four days later, as the Allies were reaching the breaking point, the skies unexpectedly and uncharacteristically cleared. For the next week, Allied airpower dominated the skies, resupplied the troops, and wrecked havoc on the German forces. Cleared weather allowed brave Allied ground forces to turn the tide on the Germans. At Patton’s next encounter with Chaplain O’Neill, he said “well Padre, our prayers worked. I knew they would.” Indeed!

Now is not the time to follow God from ‘afar off.’ Instead, it is the time to pray without ceasing. It is time to make the most of these days. We must march together, all out for God. Our prayers will work.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO MARCH TOGETHER, ALL OUT FOR GOD. As we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, we must cling to His power to turn the tide of our conflict. We must have the assurance and the faith that God is with us. With prayer, we cannot fail.

Have a blessed Christmas!

Judges 7:7 “And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.”

Patton’s Training Letter 5 was delivered between December 12^th-14^th, 1944. It had “the approval, the encouragement, and the enthusiastic support” of Patton himself. It provided a powerful focus “on the importance of prayer” to chaplains and commanders. The letter included the following:

“Those who pray do more for the world than those who fight; and if the world goes from bad to worse, it is because there are more battles than prayers. ‘Hands lifted up,’ said Bosuet, ‘smash more battalions than hands that strike.’ Gideon of Bible fame was least in his father’s house. He came from Israel’s smallest tribe. But he was a mighty man of valor. His strength lay not in his military might, but in his recognition of God’s proper claims upon his life. He reduced his Army from thirty-two thousand to three hundred men lest the people of Israel would think that their valor had saved them. We have no intention to reduce our vast striking force. But we must urge, instruct, and indoctrinate every fighting man to pray as well as fight.  In Gideon’s day, and in our own, spiritually alert minorities carry the burdens and bring the victories.”

American Christians have lost ground because we have battled more than we have prayed. We have demonstrated ourselves as spiritually asleep instead of spiritually alert. While we shouldn’t give up the fight going forward, we should pray as we fight. In that way, we can smash far more battalions than battling can alone.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO PRAY AS WE FIGHT FOR THE CAUSE OF CHRIST IN OUR COUNTRY. Even if we are a minority, if we are spiritually alert we can carry the burdens and bring about the victories.

SET YOUR ALARM: If you’re alarmed (that college students would sign a petition to repeal the First Amendment), set your alarm (to pray for our nation)! http://freebeacon.com/issues/yale-students-sign-petition-to-repeal-first-amendment/

Psalm 86:6-7 “Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.”

Following the drafting of a prayer card for fair weather, Chaplain O’Neill discussed the power of prayer with General Patton. Patton stated:

“Chaplain, I am a strong believer in Prayer. There are three ways that men get what they want: by planning, by working, and by Praying. Any great military operation takes careful planning, or thinking. Then you must have well-trained troops to carry it out: that’s working. But between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure. It is the reaction of the actors to the ordeal when it actually comes. Some people call that getting the breaks; I call it God. God has His part, or margin in everything. That’s where prayer comes in. Up to now, in the Third Army, God has been very good to us.  We have never retreated; we have suffered no defeats, no famine, no epidemics. This is because a lot of people back home are praying for us. We were lucky in Africa, in Sicily, and in Italy – simply because people prayed. But we have to pray for ourselves, too. A good soldier is not made merely by making him think and work. There is something in every soldier that goes deeper than thinking or working–it’s his “guts.” It is something that he has built in there: it is a world of truth and power that is higher than himself. Great living is not all output of thought and work. A man has to have intake as well. I don’t know what you call it, but I call it Religion, Prayer, or God.”

Patton went on to say:

“I wish you would put out a Training Letter on this subject of Prayer to all the chaplains; write about nothing else, just the importance of prayer. Let me see it before you send it. We’ve got to get not only the chaplains but every man in the Third Army to pray. We must ask God to stop these rains. These rains are that margin that hold defeat or victory. If we all pray, it will be like what Dr. Carrel said, it will be like plugging in on a current whose source is in Heaven. I believe that prayer completes that circuit. It is power.”

We need to complete the circuit. We need God’s power! There is only so much we can achieve by planning and working. The margin between defeat and victory is in God’s hands.

Every man must pray! PLEASE PRAY FOR THE RAINS TO STOP IN AMERICA AND VICTORY FOR CHRIST TO EMERGE. Prayer plugs us in to heavenly current. We should write about nothing else.

Judges 6:12 “And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.”

In December 1944, Allied success on the Western Front was far from assured. Though the Germans had been pushed back, they enjoyed a reduced front and shorter supply lines. Hitler saw an opportunity for a counterattack, though it necessitated bad weather to reduce the Allied airpower advantages.

As the Germans were planning their counterattack, General Patton’s advance was hindered by bad weather. On December 8^th, 1944, Patton called Chaplain James O’Neill and tasked him with writing a prayer for good weather. General Patton approved of the Chaplain’s prayer and ordered 250,000 copies of the following to be distributed to every man:

“Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.”

Figuratively, 21^st century America does not have fair weather for the cause of Christ and the maintenance of our Christian heritage. We have had to contend with immoderate rains and hostile conditions. If we are to crush oppression and wickedness, establish God’s justice, and advance from victory to victory then we must follow the pattern of the Third Army – humbly beseech God to grant us favor.

PLEASE PRAY FOR FAIR WEATHER FOR CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA. It is only God’s power that can change the prevailing forecast.

SET YOUR ALARM: If you’re alarmed (that the press mocks the power of prayer while Christians neglect its power), set your alarm (to pray for our nation)!

Ephesians 5:14-16 “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Two conditions were necessary for Admiral Yamamoto’s thoughts following his attack on Pearl Harbor to be proved true (see previous post). The awakening of a sleeping giant was not enough; that awakened giant needed to be filled with “terrible resolve.”

We must not be simply awakened by the continued attacks on us, our faith, and our God. Instead, we must be resolved to do something about it. Success in an off-cycle election is small stakes. The real test of our resolve will come through a Biblical steadfastness in our prayer lives, our testimonies, and our votes. We must redeem the time we have been given, or the window of opportunity to turn this nation back to God may irreversibly close. One small success will not reverse the tide of secularism in America. Now that we are awake we must stay active or our influence will atrophy once again.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AN AWAKENED CHRISTIAN POPULACE TO FOLLOW UP ON SUCCESS WITH CONTINUED RESOLVE. It has taken a continued crisis to awaken us. May terrible resolve prompt us to never slumber again!