Time to Fight Back – Pray
So, for those who stop by regularly, you are probably well aware of my soapbox with prayer. But I’m going to keep talking about it until people (including myself) seem to get it. God keeps revealing in more ways how vital prayer is to me and what do we say:
Boring, Tedious, Nothing Happens, Passive, Inconsequential, etc. Sound familiar?
Even if you may not say it, examine your own prayer life. Do you “say” it by the way that you pray, or maybe, lack there of? Heck, prayer is a soapbox for me… and my prayer life shows that even I just don’t get it… a lot.
Some may find my title of this post to be an oxymoron. I did that to stand out. I did that because it is true.
Read Ephesians 6:12:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
What is prayer? It is SPIRITUAL! Brothers and sisters, there is a spiritual fight going on around us. And when we pray, really the one spiritual thing we can commit to that fight, we make a difference.
So often in the church, the glory goes to the missionaries that go around the world. They definitely should be commended. But if they didn’t have active and passionate prayer supporting them, they would probably fail. Nearly every decision made by the “heroes of the faith” in the Bible was preceded by prayer. The person who stays in the room with the door closed and falls on their face and prays… that person is a HERO and a WARRIOR.
If we really harness that. If we really believe to our core that prayer matters, that it is exciting, that it makes a difference… then, maybe then, His people will actually pray. The Bible says that with faith the size of a mustard seed that you could move a mountain. I believe Jesus literally meant that. I really do. So what do you think would happen if the entire CHURCH fervently prayed for the lost, fervently prayed for missions, fervently prayed for spiritual growth, fervently prayed….
I think the world could change.
unclewormwood, i do know you’re right. For me it is most difficult to get still before God even when I know I need to stay a while and get that specific direction I’m asking for. Many opportunities, many ideas, many headaches avoided, many intimate exchanges with my Father are missed because I would rather be “doing something.” Prayer is not passive, it’s aggressive and we can accomplish so much more if we “get down” before we go on.
Always glad to pull up a seat by the soapbox.
Brilliant post…thanks a lot!
Thank you both for your support. This has been something the Lord has really just laid on my heart, so anything redeeming in this post is solely attributed to Him. There is a Casting Crowns song entitled “What if His People Pray?” It’s a powerful question, and yet a sad one. Because it brings to home the fact that so many people, Christian people, don’t. We just don’t have time or care to spend our time doing it… or at least that is how we justify it. But I believe that we can redeem that and change as a body of believers, just like the Lord has redeemed his people over and over again.