4 Things to Pray About the Navy

This week I'm giving a short overview of ministry in the Navy.

Yesterday I gave three reasons why I thought that you should be praying for sailors. In today’s post, I want to suggest four things to pray for. They are only suggestions, and you are of course welcome to add more things to that list!

-Pray for safety:
It doesn’t matter what a sailor does, death or injury is always a possible fact of life. Any time I give a tour on board the Antietam, I say one thing first… “A ship is inherently dangerous.” And that is true. The first step in praying for a Sailor, then, is praying for his or her safety.

-Pray for boldness: No sailor wants to admit that he/she is afraid of anything, but for some reason, too many of us fail to share our faith consistently with others. Not only am I guilty of this, but I want to change it. Please, if you pray for anything, pray for this one. I fervently believe that sailors have the blessed opportunity to reach the world, but to do so we need to be bold.

-Pray for Opportunities: Witnessing is always tricky on duty, and when deployed, there’s no telling how or when that duty will work itself out. I witnessed a handful of times on my recent deployment, and it was always a trick to make sure I got to witness in a non-threatening environment to protect both me and the guy I was witnessing to. There are watches, maintenance schedules, and the like to consider. Pray for opportunities to share the Word of God with our shipmates.

-Pray for our families:
My children miss me when I’m gone, something I’m very thankful for, but also sad at the same time. It hurts to know that they are without me, and on those days, I am close to cursing the day I decided to join the Navy. It’s not fair to them that this career is in their lives. Yet it is my life, and by extension of that fact, it is their life as well. Military kids all over the world need your thoughts and prayers.

Alicia and I are in a great place right now, but don’t think that it’s always been so easy, or that it’s not work now. We have worked very hard on our marriage, and this goes for all military marriages. There is zero reason to think that any marriage can make it without prayer, especially with deployments thrown into the mix.

I know that there are many people out there who already pray, and I want to include you in the conversation. Please take a moment to comment on what you pray for regarding the military.

For those in the military, please take a moment to write a prayer request! People won’t know what we need if we don’t tell them!