Paul Rieckoff, a former 2^nd Lt. with the US Army was interviewed in May 2007 by New York Times writer Bob Herbert. Rieckoff joined the Army after 9/11 and served a harrowing tour in Iraq before leaving the Army in 2004. In the interview he contrasts the difference between the total national engagement in World War II and the seeming disconnect the nation has with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said that our leaders can say we’re a country at war all we want, "We’re not. The military is at war. And the military families are at war. Everybody else is shopping…We’re at war and everybody else is watching American Idol." (New York Times, May 3, 2007)

To what degree Rieckoff is right probably depends on whom you are talking to at the moment. One thing is sure and that is the families of the over 3933 who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan will never forget that their loved ones perished in a war. The families and friends of the nearly 200,000 soldiers serving in this war know it is a war. Those who are daily confronted with the horrors and fear of war in those two nations know they are at war. Those from our church and community who are part of the 875^th Engineering Battalion know we are at war.

Why are we so disengaged as a nation from the reality that we are a nation at war? Oh, I am sure that there are many reasons but the question is how can we as believers become more connected to the difficult struggle of the fact that we are a nation at war? We can become more aware by being informed. We can support the families of those who are involved in this war. We can directly connect with the soldiers themselves. While all of those may not be available to everyone, there is one thing that every believer can do and must do and that is pray, pray for our nation in a time of war.

I realize that simply bringing up the topic or saying the words from the pulpit about the war can be construed by someone as partisan or political. I felt at first that I would just be safe and avoid it altogether but being safe isn’t what being a pastor always means. So what I say today isn’t partisan or political; it is about prayer, prayer for our nation in a time of war. To be honest with you, I can’t recall ever hearing a sermon about this and I have never preached a sermon about this. What I do know is that we are a nation at war and regardless of your personal opinion about it, as a believer, we have a responsibility to pray for our nation in a time of war!

In one of our texts for the morning David, the psalmist, prays for God’s protection in a time of war. The NASV says in verse 3, " Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident." He sought and trusted God’s presence in a time of war. Prayer has always played a significant role in the wars in which this nation has been engaged. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and others since Vietnam to Iraq have encouraged prayer for our nation in a time of war. Personal prayers of a soldier or civilian focuses the will and mind upon the critical realities that confront them. Communal prayer reinforces that we stand united before God and are reminded of our helplessness.

I think that is the one thing that is so apparent in this particular war is the sense of helplessness. There is debate concerning the just nature of this war. There is a certain degree of the diabolical involved in the war. By that I mean we are fighting an enemy unlike any we have fought before in any conventional war. The entanglement in which we find ourselves offers no easy extraction plus allies in that region of the Middle East are virtually non-existent. All this leaves you as a concerned believer feeling desperate and helpless. The only sure way to overcome our helplessness is to pray, pray for our nation in a time of war.

Why is prayer so essential in a time of war? While Paul’s words in I Timothy were not given in the context of a military conflict, they were given in a time of spiritual conflict. Paul knew that Timothy and the church he pastored at Ephesus were constantly in danger by the spiritual forces of darkness that opposed them. The one thing Timothy could do was to pray so Paul urged him to make prayer an urgent priority and focus. I want us to examine this text this morning in light of the fact that we are a nation at war and discover why prayer is so essential.

The first reason prayer is essential in a time of war is that prayer engages us in the battle for peace. (I Tim. 2:1) Paul tells Timothy to make prayer an urgent priority. He then goes on to list multiple descriptions of prayer: requests which are more personal needs or desires, prayers that focus on God, pleadings which are more like a child to a parent, and thanksgiving that reflects gratitude to God for his love and provision. It is not so much that we are commanded to use all of those types of prayers specifically but that we are to pray in every way possible.

Any rational thinking person and any clear thinking believer ultimately wants peace between both nations and individuals. Paul will mention that one of the motives for prayer for civil leaders is "so that we can live in peace." There is a continual debate as to whether this war was or is a just war. Our persuasion about that ultimately isn’t what is most important. What is important is that at the end of the war that there is peace. How that is possible in this circumstance is totally out of our hands and that is why we need to pray. When you pray it becomes less about your opinions and more about the ultimate purpose of God for peace in a world that has rejected it.

When I pray for our nation in a time of war I put myself into the battle for peace. I try to imagine how I would feel if I were a member of the 875^th on patrol looking for IED’s. I try to imagine how a wife or husband feels or a parent or grandparent feels knowing their loved one is in harms way. I think about the responsibility that our President and other leaders feel as they contemplate decisions that can secure peace. I try to think how innocent civilians in those nations feel as they endure the horrors of war. If I don’t do that, then my prayers become void of any real engagement in the war. War demands that we confront the death and brutality of war face to face. The most effective way to do that is to pray. Prayer is the one thing we can do that puts us in the battle for peace.

Another reason prayer is essential for our nation in a time of war is that prayer influences the makers of peace. (I Tim. 2:2a) Earlier in verse 1 Paul has advised Timothy to use all kinds and types of prayer for all kinds and types of people. In verse 2 he specifically urges him to, "pray…for kings and all others who are in authority." The words actually mean all those who are in high places of leadership. It would be those who in a time of war are the decision makers in war and those who have control of the destinies of human lives. For Paul, this meant everyone from the Roman Emperor Nero to the local mayor of a city. No one who had authority was to be forgotten.

It means for us that we should pray for those who are in any place of leadership in a time of war. We need to pray for our national leaders from the President to the Congress. We need to pray for our soldiers from the Joint Chiefs to the platoon leader. We need to pray for our enemies regardless of whatever cave in which they may be hiding for they make decisions that affect us here. As much as we would want to frame the founding fathers or great leaders like Abraham Lincoln as good Southern Baptists, they were not. Many of them had an idea of God as more an impersonal force whose purposes could not be altered, yet they were ignorant of what those purposes were. They often--Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln in particular--believed in God’s providence and even referred to God as "Divine Providence." God for them was an impersonal power whose will was unchanged and unaffected by human power. It was essential to try to get in line with that, whatever it was. Yet we believe that God is affected and reached by our prayers and that he works through persons in leadership so we pray for them.

What do we pray for those who are in leadership, who control the destinies of people? Several years ago Ed Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston and then President of the Southern Baptist Convention, gave two excellent things to pray for those in leadership. He advised that we are to pray, not motivated by politics but by God’s higher purpose, to pray as Jesus commanded us, "Thy kingdom come." It is God’s kingdom that is to come not the politics of your persuasion or mine. He also said that we are not to pray motivated by personal desires but to pray as Jesus modeled, "Thy will be done." It is about God’s will that is to be accomplished not what you want or I want. Regardless of your politics or your personal desires, we each must place our prayers at the feet of a Sovereign God and pray, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We pray in a time of war because prayer influences the makers of peace.

Prayer engages us in the battle for peace and influences the makers of peace but prayer also creates the pathway for peace. (I Tim. 2:2b) Paul gives us the specific reason for praying for those who are in leadership. He says, "So that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity." He is telling Timothy that the pathway toward a life of peace is tied to praying for those in leadership. Paul knew that for the church to survive there in Ephesus they needed the freedom from the influence of government conflict and control.

One of the founding principles spelled out in The Declaration of Independence is that there are certain rights, that all people are "endowed by their Creator" to possess and "that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Those three ideals are principles upon which this nation is founded and are to be the right of every human on this planet. Have we always honored that for all persons in our nation? No, and it is to our shame that we have not. However, there is no other nation on this planet that was founded upon such principles and has sought to protect those ideals with such a cost of human life as the United States of America. Our nation must always remember that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" may exact from her sons and daughters the ultimate sacrifice.

What we want is to live our lives in freedom, peace, quietness, godliness and dignity. While achieving that may sometimes come as a result of war, war will never be a believer’s most powerful weapon. It will always be prayer, prayer to a God who cares about the pain and suffering of his creation. You ask me do I understand that prayer is the pathway for peace. The answer is "no." You ask me do I believe that my prayers can bring an end to the war in which we find ourselves and my answer is "yes." All I know is that my prayer, my praying more than any other thing I can do creates a pathway for peace. If you believe that the ideals of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are the fundamental rights of all humanity, then as you do anything else to secure those rights then pray, use prayer as the pathway for peace. In a time of war prayer creates the pathway for peace.

Lastly, prayer completes the purpose for peace. (I Tim. 2:3-4) Paul concludes by telling Timothy that this idea of prayer in a time of spiritual warfare is completely in line with the will and purpose of God. Then he adds in verse 4, " …for he wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth." The reason that praying for peace is fulfilling the will of God is because peace among people and nations allows the gospel greater freedom to be proclaimed. God wants, longs and desires for everyone, all people of all kinds, to be saved from hell to a new life with Christ and to understand the truth of God’s love and grace for themselves. What we need to understand is that as long as there is war this purpose of God given to be believers will be hindered.

Does war create new opportunities for the gospel to be shared? Absolutely. Some of our soldiers in the 875^th have ongoing Bible studies and are living testimonies to other soldiers of the love of Jesus Christ even there in Iraq. There are Baptist missionaries serving in Iraq who could not be there before. Yet does war hinder the opportunities for the gospel to be shared and the answer is yes. Think of the lives of both believing soldiers and missionaries that have been lost in this war and you wonder who could have been reached for Christ had they lived. I realize again that war creates spiritual thirst but that is never God’s perfect plan for reaching the world for Christ. When we pray for peace to come we do so with the passion that God’s purpose for peace between people and himself will be accomplished.

Think again about the war in which we as a nation are engaged. What can you do? There are many activist things that you can do however you may feel about the war itself. The one thing you cannot do is to neglect to pray for our nation in a time of war. Prayer engages us in the battle for peace, influences the makers of peace, creates the pathway for peace and completes God’s purpose for peace.

Where does prayer for our nation begin? Does it begin by confronting the terrors and realities of war alone? No, it begins with our sense of utter helplessness. Lincoln said about his own need of prayer in the Civil War, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." (Prayer by Phillip Yancey, Zondervan, 2007, p. 228) When we are on our knees then we will pray in a time of war. "Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident." (Psalm 27:3) As you celebrate 231 years of freedom this holiday, may you not forget to pray, to pray for our nation in a time of war.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org