“…praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…” (Ephesians 6:18, ESV)
The word “ALL” shows up again in this verse and lets us know the importance prayer has. Part of putting on God’s armor is the alertness that is required to use it properly. Prayer is key. We are to pray at all times, in all kinds of ways, with all perseverance for all people.
Intel and Comms are important in battle. Scouts, Operators and technology work together to make sure soldiers have accurate information for battle. They know where they’re going, who they’re up against, what they’ll need, what the mission is and how to get home. Comms are how Intel gets passed along to the soldiers. Prayer is like that for us. God has all the Intel about every situation. Prayer allows us to tap into that to stay alert.
Prayer can seem intimidating. Many people feel like they’re not doing it right or they don’t want to mess it up. The truth is prayer is supposed to be messy and informal. Jesus rebuked people for praying “fancy” prayers to impress other people. Prayer is simply talking to God and listening back to him. Prayer is an act of faith. It shows we believe we’re in a Spiritual reality – that we need more than what we can see. The Bible is packed with instructions on prayer, but here is a very simple way to get started. You can remember the acronym PRAY.
Praise – Start your prayers by humbly focusing on God and giving thanks to Him for who He is and what He has done. Take a moment to be still and center yourself on what you believe about Him. Let your heart connect with His. Give Him praise!
Repent – The Bible teaches that we are to repent of our sins. Repentance includes (1) Agreeing with God about our sin – we admit when we’ve messed up. (2) Asking for Forgiveness – God has grace for us for every failure. His forgiveness is available at any time. Saying sorry and asking for forgiveness makes that grace something we experience. (3) Turning Away– when we truly repent, we see that God’s ways are much better than ours, and we make a choice to follow Him by turning away and leaving the sins we’ve been forgiven of. What do you need to repent of?
Asking – Here we start making what the Bible calls supplications. Who is on your heart to pray for? Who needs encouragement? Who needs help? We are called to pray for our families, our leaders, our friends, our co-workers, our enemies, our country, the poor, the world and on and on. There is no shortage of opportunity to pray for other people. Don’t wait to get started. What’s and/or who is on your heart?
Yourself – This is the place we usually start, but it’s more appropriate to put it last. Since we consider others more important than ourselves, we put them first in our prayers as well. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for ourselves. We should. What do you need? What do you want? What are you facing? What would make you stronger? Where do you need God to come through for you?
Once you start praying, get ready. Prayer changes things, and prayer changes people. Prayer opens the doors of opportunity for you to see how strong your armor is. There’s no better time to strengthen your prayer life. Start now. You won’t be sorry!
Please remember to let us know if we can answer any questions you might have, connect you with resources for help of any kind or pray for you.