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Keeping the faith while serving in Iraq

  • Thread starter Thread starter SgtJ205
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SgtJ205

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Hello all, first of all let me introduce myself. Im Jon, and am currently serving in iraq. I would just like to get a little feedback from you guys regarding a difficult matter while serving.
I have noticed at least in my spiritual life, that my walk with the lord has fallen a good bit since ive been in Iraq. When not on patrol, all I want to do is rest. Sundays are just another day of the week here, and we dont really have much of a chapel center here. Its almost as if my unit frowns on me if i try to take personal time to read a devotional book. Any advice for the deployed soldiers who are struggling in their walk with christ?
 
How many are there in your group? Can you find another brother who may need encouragement and your small group can have a devotional time?
 
Well Sara(guessing by ur quote at the bottom haha) , there is one other fellow soldier with me that is a strong christian, but unfortunatly he is on a different squad and we dont cross paths as often as wed like! The other guys in my squad dont show any signs of being strong christians. The thing with the military, you arent supposed to approach anyone regarding religion unless theyve expressed interest. I dunno if you see what im saying, but its almost a lose lose situation! As of now, when i start my day, i read a daily devotional, but have noone to share it with. So it kind of puts a damper on my hype
 
Know that I am praying for you that God will place another strong Christian in your path so you can have Godly fellowship. Stay strong in the Lord in this stressful time. God will see you through and give you the desires of your heart as long as you delight yourself in Him!

I'd like to be able to send you some encouraging words now & then. Do you have an e mail address? Or a mailing address to receive things? PM me if this is sensitive matter.

Yep....they call me Sara :smt061
 
Well you sara, that means a lot! Sure ill give you my email for now :-p, its SgtJ205@gmail.com Hope to hear from you! And thank you again
 
Hey Jon, it's good to hear from you. I've never been in the military, so I probably can't advise you as to how to maintain a healthy spiritual walk while dealing with the pressures of war. I'll certainly be praying for you, that God will meet your needs of rest and fellowship while you are serving. Wasn't it the military that invented the Catch-22? Sounds like the "Catch" is alive and well with the "You can't express interest, unless they express interest first" which means naturally that no-one feels free to express their interest. :-?

Meanwhile, perhaps you could use this forum for fellowship. While I'm not in the military, I am somewhat cut off from regular Christian fellowship, (ie regular church services, bible studies and the like). I've found this forum to be a great place to discuss the Bible and ask for prayers and pray for others. It's been a great encouragement to me, maybe you'll be blessed in a similar way by visiting here. I don't know how much Internet time you get, but hopefully you can in some small way get a little fellowship and feed-back in this way.

I also want to take this time to personally thank you for being willing to serve in order to make us all safer. You folks in the military may hear a lot of negativity (and nonsense) regarding the politics surrounding the war, but I can assure you that most folks back here, at least in Idaho, support the troops 100% and pray for you daily. Now that I have your name, you'll be in my prayers for sure.

Dora
 
Well thank you for your words of encouragement Dora! I do have to agree with the Catch-22 statement. But so far this has already been an outlet for me! Im just getting by readying my devotionals and praying. But there is always that yearning to have a fellow christian to do it with! What kind of things do you do to put your mind at ease during stressful times?
 
There are always three things that I have found keep me going:

1: During the time of intense stess, like when I watched my husband driving in the car ahead of me have a seizure with my daugther in the back seat, I pray. I'm sure you've already found out this one. Even if the prayer comes out something like "Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus Oh Jesus!", we can always remember that the Holy Spirit is there to more or less 'translate' our prayers to the Father.

2: I also sing, either with my mouth or in my head, scripture songs or hymns. One favorite of mine, that you might find encouraging is based upon Psalm 3. You may know it, the words go like this:

Oh Lord, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me.
Many are saying of me,
There is no help for Him in God.
But Thou, Oh Lord, are a shield about me!
My glory and the Lifter of my head.
I cried unto the Lord,
And He answered me from His holy hill.

This psalm was written by David, who as you probably know, knew something of military pressures.

And 3rd: I'm not sure if you memorize scripture, but when one needs to just be able to calm the mind down, as I'm sure you must at times, reviewing and meditating on memorized Scripture is very calming. There are probably times when you're not able to physically read your bible, but desire the comfort of God's words. Scripture memory is good for times such as that.

One passage you might find encouraging, if you haven't already found it, is 1 Peter 1:6-7:

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that your faith (being more precioius than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fires) may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I hope this helps, Jon. I don't know if it will be morning or evening when you can next read this, but this is my prayer for you now:

Father, I lift before You Your servant Jon. He is in harm's way, Lord, and yet his mind is on how to better serve You and show his faithfulness to You. Lord, I pray that you give Jon the rest he needs and that You would be his shield, glory, and the lifter of his head. As he desires to share his faith with others, allow him opportunities to show others that his help is in God. Above all, Lord, I ask that you keep Jon safe in the eye of the storm. I ask these things in the name of Jesus, Who will reveal all praise, glory and honor at the appointed time. Amen
 
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