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Christian growth, christian journey, christian walk, destroying our enemies, encouragement, enemy of our souls, fighting and winning, great prayer life, greatest spiritual weapon, greatest weapon, having a consistent prayer time, how to keep praying, our best chance, pray without ceasing, prayer, spiritual war
If you were in a war and your enemy had the best weapon, what would you do?
What would you do knowing if your enemy used this weapon, you would be obliterated?
What would your strategy be?
Would you change sides?
Not an option.
Would you disarm the weapon?
Not possible.
You couldn’t do anything about the weapon’s power. Nothing. So, what would you do? What could your strategy possibly be?
Your only chance would be to convince your enemy that the most powerful weapon they have… the one that would completely annihilate your side…is useless. The best plan would be to come up with a campaign to brainwash the opposing side into thinking their weapon is pitiful, their weapon will never amount to anything and in fact, other armies will laugh at them if that’s the weapon they depend on.
You would try to embarrass them, harass them and tell them that, in fact, the weapon they were told is invincible will actually make them appear weak.
Why?
That would be your only hope. You would know that you had to convince the other side to never use that weapon or, you would be finished.
Ephesians 6:12, says, “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”
Scripture tells us we are in a war and it is a war we cannot see without spiritual eyes. This chapter in Ephesians later tells us to put on the whole armor of God and while we are putting on this armor Ephesians 6:18 tells us we are to do so while praying. In fact, it says we are to pray at ALL times.
Philippians 4:6 tells us, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving.”
Another example is found in I Thessalonians 5:17. It says, “Pray constantly.”
All of these verses tell us that prayer is vital. It is a MIGHTY WEAPON, but how do we really feel about prayer?
In the core of our being do we know how powerful prayer is?
Did we know at one time how powerful prayer is, but now we are losing hope?
Can we remember intense times of prayer, but the edge of our weapon has worn down a little?
Do we believe prayer works, still works right now?
Do we believe it is our strongest weapon?
Jesus is our best example for prayer in Scripture. Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35, Luke 9:18 are just a few of the accounts we are given of Jesus praying. We see in these first two verses that He prayed in the morning and the evening. We see from other passages that He was continually in prayer throughout His ministry. In Matthew 6:6, Jesus says, “…when you pray…”, not if.
Praying is not a suggestion, it’s a necessity.
So, if Jesus taught it and demonstrated to us how to pray, why is prayer so hard at times for us? Why is it so hard to pray without ceasing as Thessalonians tells is to do?
Part of the reason why prayer is so hard is that we are in a war. It is a weapon. Battle is hard work. Fatigue is real. Ask any soldier.
When we pick up our weapon of prayer, we have engaged the enemy. Our weapon is by far the most powerful, but we still have to wield it and that takes work.
I believe another reason prayer is hard for us is because we have no perseverance without God’s strength. Our humanness has no staying power without the Holy Spirit. No need to hide in shame if we have grown weary praying for the same people over and over. We simply ask for renewed vigor.
When I grow weary in prayer, I remind myself to ask God for His heart for prayer. Maybe I’m praying for a particular person to start coming to my church when God wants me to pray for them to have people around them to guide them daily? Maybe I’m praying for a person to give me a raise when God wants me to pray for their salvation? What does He want us to pray for? What’s on His heart? Renewed energy comes into our prayer life when we know we are on the same page with God Himself.
But, you want to know the main reason prayer can be so hard?
Our enemy knows our prayers will annihilate him.
He knows prayer is the key to not just the battle, but the war.
Our enemy is a constant gnat buzzing around our ear saying things like, “Prayer doesn’t matter. God’s not hearing you. You are wasting your time. You’ve already prayed about that. Is prayer really all you have?”
Our enemy is holding a constant campaign to sow deceit into our thinking.
Our enemy knows their only chance of victory is if we do not use our most powerful weapon…prayer.
Unfortunately, the constant barrage works with most of us. We think prayer is a last resort, or that God hears others, but not us. We allow lies we are told by the enemy to germinate in our lives and those seeds bring forth the fruit of a prayerless life.
In the Old Testament, Hezekiah gives us an amazing illustration of prayer. When he prayed on behalf of God’s people, the Lord sent an angel that destroyed over 185,000 soldiers in one night.
Woah.
Prayer is powerful! We literally have a spiritual bomb in our arsenal that will obliterate our enemy and it sits quietly in the corner gathering dust. We worry and fret about our families’ issues, the unsaved, dissention among believers, finances…the list can go on and on and we have allowed our greatest weapon to seem powerless to us. We have believed the propaganda of our enemy.
Is praying hard?
It is, but we know it is worth the effort because it is our most powerful weapon.
I want to encourage you to pray without ceasing. Pray with renewed commitment and vigor. Pray when you feel like it and especially when you don’t.
Let’s not be tricked into thinking that prayer is not vital to every person and every ministry. When we get discouraged into thinking our prayers don’t matter, it should be a trigger for us to know they matter… A LOT! Otherwise, why would our enemy bother with discouraging us? If prayer was a waste of time, why would our enemy be so adamantly against it?
So, be encouraged today and PRAY!
A Seeking Heart 