How to Pray
The thirty-ship convoy left Guadalcanal on September 4, 1944, headed north slowly at seven knots. The speed was dictated by the tank landing ships (LSTs), with their clamshell bow doors and cargoes of amphibious tractors. Four assault waves were embarked for the ten-day journey to Peleliu, a small island six hundred miles east of the Philippines. Bruce Watkins was one of the Marines aboard who had never heard of this remote little island. He had a lot of time to think about what he had left behind and to pray about what lay ahead:
I remember leaning on the ship’s rail, alone for once, my thoughts on my much-loved wife of 14 months. I knew she would be praying for me, although she could not know the hour of our peril. Brought up in a Christian home, it was natural for me to turn to God and ask for His help. I asked for sharpness of mind to make the right decisions quickly for those who depended on me. Somehow I felt it was wrong to ask for my personal safety, but I asked for strength to fight no matter how badly I might be wounded. And so the last hours passed. Soon there would be no time for reflection.356
This was a thoughtful man who was able to turn to God as he faced an unknown and dangerous future. I found it very intriguing that he would not pray for his own safety. Perhaps he was conscious of the fact that many would die in the upcoming invasion, and he did not want to selfishly put himself ahead of others. Or perhaps he thought that God’s plan might include his death and to pray otherwise would be futile. I’ve had similar thoughts to these and questions about what to ask of God. I have come to believe that I can ask God for anything, after prefacing my request with a heartfelt “Thy will be done, Lord.”
Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?’”
—Zechariah 7:46
Marines assaulting a bunker on Tarawa. (National Archives)
Religious service behind the lines. (National Archives)