Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”
Our Bible verse for today: “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the world powers of darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.” Ephesians 6:12 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “You are in a battle and prayer is one of your weapons.”
The Bible is clear that there is a great battle raging in the spiritual realm for the hearts and souls of men and women, boys and girls. Behind the veil that separates the physical realm from the spiritual realm the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, are at war. Also, there is a direct link between the two realms. What happens in the spiritual realm impacts and influences what happens in the physical realm, and vice-versa.
That means that you and I are involved in a war – a spiritual war that is linked to and impacts life in the physical world. That was Paul’s point in Ephesians 6:12. In the rest of that passage Paul describes resources the Lord provides for us and strategies we are to use as we engage in the spiritual warfare. We’ll take a look at that tomorrow. Today we just want to get the point that there is a war going on and we’re in it.
That understanding should impact how we pray. The role of prayer in this war is crucial. For one thing, as has already been discussed, when we come to God in prayer He will often clarify our thinking and help us to see things as they truly are. That’s important. Satan is a master deceiver. Therefore things we encounter in day-to-day life are often actually different than they appear at first. In prayer God can help us see through the fog of deception.
But also in prayer God will often help us to see the way forward and what steps to take next. Again this is important. In this battle Satan would like to keep us confused and misdirected. God can and does use our times of prayer to strategize with us and help us to understand His plan for dealing with our current situation.
In prayer we also get outfitted for the fight. It’s in prayer that we put on the defensive armament that Paul describes in this passage of Ephesians six and which we’ll talk about tomorrow. That armor protects us as we engage the enemy. It’s also in prayer that we take-up the offensive weapons Paul will teach us about in Ephesians six and which enable us to take the battle to the enemy.
Finally, prayer itself can be a weapon in our arsenal. We can and should use our prayers as a means of striking the enemy, actually beating him back and recapturing ground previously held by him.
If this is how we think about prayer then it changes everything. No more kiddie prayers like “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep …” No sir! This is war. This is serious stuff. Prayer prepares us for the battle and prayer often is the battle.
How we think about prayer determines how we actually pray. We’ll spend more time with Paul’s instructions about this in Ephesians chapter six tomorrow.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 