January 10; Words From The Heart Can Persuade Millions
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

10 January

Commit your works to the Lord

and your plans will be established.

Psalm 16:3

Church and State

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the president prayed.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces in World War II. He could command man and machines but what he really commanded was the hearts of men.

During times of dark uncertainty FDR could rally and carry a nation and win World War II where the Allies were not the odds-on favorite. What did FDR do?

He asked for the help of Divine Providence. Publicly.

FDR may not have been a deeply religious man but he knew the power of a prayer coming from the president during war.

Psalms 16:3 tells us to Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.

The D-Day prayer was not done silently in the dark of a prayer closet. FDR prayed in humble supplication in public on the radio and was heard by millions.

The Normandy Beaches were stormed and secured. Berlin would fall ten months later.

A wartime president could influence a nation’s will to win with a prayer for the Creator’s Intervention.

Prayer works.

Through his hear-felt prayer, heard across the country on radio, FDR communicated another kind of vision – one that combined humility and hope:

…And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

…Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

…Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be…

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

Are you planning to implement a Big Vision? Prayer would be a good place to start.

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