How much water have you drank today? Some of you got immediately thirsty upon reading that question. It is easy to remember to drink water when you’re working outside in the middle of the summer or just got done with an intense workout. It’s a lot harder to remember to drink water when you’re going about a busy day and never recognize your thirst. Prayer can be similar for many of us. It’s easy to pray when we feel a need for God, but it’s a lot more difficult to remember to pray when we are going about our busy day, forgetting our need.
We know that we are supposed to pray continually, and we hear that prayer is powerful, but we don’t really believe it. If we truly believed that prayer was powerful, we would pray all of the time about everything. Instead, we pray when it’s convenient, when we’re in need, or when we want something. The rest of the time, we rely on our own actions and abilities.
The truth is, we are in a spiritual battle that doesn’t rest. Often, we don’t see things as a spiritual battle; we just see the flooded bathroom and broken dishwasher as an expensive inconvenience that happened to interrupt your fundraising for a mission trip. We see the addict as being a product of his choices. We see the bully as a result of bad parenting. We see troublesome laws as a result of corrupt government. Instead of praying, we look to worldly solutions to fight a spiritual battle, but the world around is isn’t split into “spiritual” and “unspiritual”. Everything is a manifestation of the spiritual battle around us.
And still, we put down our weapon of prayer and pick up weapons of this world in the hopes of winning the battle. We have access to the Creator of the Universe. We have access to all wisdom, power, and strength—the very strength that raised Christ from the dead. But instead we’d rather rely on ourselves and pray when it’s convenient or necessary. If we knew the true power of prayer, it would change the way we lived.
Reflection/Discussion Questions: What do you believe about prayer? Does your prayer life back up your beliefs?
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