Episode Details

The Shot and the Prayer

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

— Joshua 1:9

THE STORY

The night before the battle, Captain John Parker gathered his men.

It was April 18th, 1775, and the British regulars were on the march from Boston. Parker's militia, farmers, tradesmen, ordinary men who had never been soldiers, assembled on the Lexington Green in the cold pre-dawn hours. They knew the British were coming. They knew they were outnumbered.

Parker was a man of few words. The instructions he gave his men that morning have become famous: "Stand your ground. Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."

What is less often told is what happened before those words. The men gathered in the meetinghouse the night before and prayed. Their pastor, Jonas Clark, had spent years preaching to these men about the rights of free people under God. They did not march out as strangers to the Almighty. They went as men who had committed their lives to His hands. Eight of them would be dead before sunrise.

THE REFLECTION

There is a word for what those men did on Lexington Green. It is not heroism, though they were heroic. It is not patriotism, though they were patriots. The word is obedience. They had come to believe, through years of preaching and prayer, that God had called them to this moment. And when the moment came, they showed up.

Joshua 1:9 was written to a man leading a frightened people into an impossible situation. God's command was not "be fearless." It was "be strong and courageous," which implies that fear was present and had to be overcome. The courage God requires is not the absence of fear. It is the decision to act faithfully despite it.

Parker's men were afraid. Any honest man would have been. But they had prayed, and when the sun came up they were standing on the green.

America was born in a prayer meeting the night before a battle. Perhaps that is worth remembering the next time we wonder where our courage has gone.

THE PATRIOT’S PRAYER

Pray It Forward: Where is God calling you to stand your ground today, in your family, your faith, your community? Ask Him for the courage to be found on the green when the morning comes.

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