PLUS

Joshua 4:20-24 “And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.”

There are stones of remembrance spread throughout American history to remind us of how the Lord helped our forefathers to pass over barriers and overcome challenges that faced our nation. In the upcoming year, PLUS will direct our gaze to many of those from the year of our independence. As children, we need only look back to our founding fathers to see how God dried up the waters that hindered them and allowed them to pass over.

Times were bleak at points in 1776. Yet, time and again the Lord sustained the faithful patriots and prevented sure defeat as they turned to Him. By their example, the people of the earth knew the mightiness of the Lord’s hand. So must we!

PLEASE PRAY THAT WE WOULD BE ATTENTIVE TO THE POWER OF GOD IN THE FOUNDING OF AMERICA. Through the testimonies of our fathers and the miracles that they experienced, we should know the mightiness of the Lord’s hand. It is the same power that is available for us to harness today through prayer.

Please click on the following links to see related thoughts:
https://prayatlunch.us/no-people/
https://prayatlunch.us/minority-miracles/

Psalm 145:3-7 “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.”

As 2016 approaches, we must be mindful of its importance in the future of our nation. We cannot overstate the criticality of the juncture at which we sit. The next year’s election results at the local, state, and federal levels will indicate whether we are headed for national revival and restoration or irreversibly away from both.

In order to prepare our hearts for the upcoming year, we must turn our minds back 240 years. The year of 1776 was critical to our nation. God’s centrality to the formation of America cannot be overstated, and it will be a PLUS focus of 2016. During that pivotal year, God acted in miraculous ways. That generation expressed praise to the Lord and declared His mighty acts. They spoke of His glorious honour, His amazing majesty, and His wondrous works. Today, we must utter the memory of His greatness and sing of His righteousness as we consider God’s role in our formation. Doing so will encourage, equip and challenge us.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO LINGER ON GOD’S IRREPLACEABLE ROLE IN OUR FOUNDING. We must utter the memory of His greatness at all times.

SET YOUR ALARM: If you’re ENCOURAGED (by the reminder that Christ came to save our fallen world), set your alarm (to pray for our nation)!

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.