All in Prayer, Armor, and Wrestling

Who taught you how to pray? Did you learn so long ago that you can’t actually remember? Did you learn by reciting common prayer in church? Perhaps your mother and father taught you as a child. For something so crucial and basic to our faith and relationship with Jesus and God, we appear to approach it in an often haphazard manner. So how should we pray?

Where do you go for help? Do you go there for your own needs, or for those of another? And, are you persistent in your pleading for assistance? These three questions determine who we perceive as having strength, whether we are in need or empathetic, and how great our love or desire is that has brought us there. Have you ever applied these three simple little questions to your prayers, and if so, what did they reveal to you, about Jesus, and your faith? 

Are you in the habit of beginning each day in prayer, contemplation, and reading scripture? Do you offer this as a time dedicated to the Lord, and in which the two of you can be alone together? Do you rise early and go into your prayer closet where you call His name and wait upon Him? If so you already know how spiritually refreshing that time is, but if not, I would encourage you to do so... mornings are a special time with the Lord, and of new beginning.

Are you completely dressed and ready for the day, or have you professed your belief in God and Jesus Christ, but not clothed yourself in those things they provide you that will protect you against the world? On top of that, are you ready to wrestle with the issues pertaining to God’s will for your life that require you to be more than an unthinking creature? 

How do you pray in intercession? Do you give your own instruction to the person for whom you pray, or do you place their suffering or other need before God and ask His will be communicated, and done, for them? One of the greatest snares in intercession is to allow our sympathy to step between the person requesting prayer, and God. When this happens we attempt to fill the void that only God is qualified to fill.

Do you attempt to hide who you are from God by covering yourself in some fashion? Do you pretend to be spiritually in control when in fact you are anything but? Are your sins hidden within you where you feel they are safe from God’s eyes? Who do you fool, but yourself? Lay your iniquities before you and seek God’s help in dealing with them, because He has known them all along... even in the recesses of your heart. 

Are you in search of the “things” of your life; you know, the thrill of your life, the job of your life, the experience of your life, and if you are so fortunate, the love of your life? These are all examples of the “things” that we seek after. These are the “things” that we believe will make us happy, but be honest with yourself... we all do this to some degree, and are you ever truly happy when you think you’ve found them?