Have a prayer plan…

Ephesians 6

10 Last of all I want to remind you that your strength must come from the Lord’s mighty power within you.

11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand safe against all strategies and wiles of Satan.

13 So use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will still be standing up.

18 Pray all the time. Ask God for anything in line with the Holy Spirit’s wishes. Plead with him, reminding him of your needs, and keep praying earnestly for all Christians everywhere.

In these verses Paul gives us two critical ingredients to battle against the wiles of the devil.  While the wiles of the devil include many things, the thing he seems to be most wiley about is prayer.  Why is prayer so difficult for Christians? I have yet met one (including me) who wishes his or her prayer life was better, and that includes some pretty positive pray-ers.  One of the keys to a more powerful prayer life might be found in these verses.

First of all, there is a strong and powerful relationship between putting on the armor of God and praying. They are dependent on each other and if we lack either, we will be lacking.  Putting on the armor is an active step in our thought life. It is what we do before the battle, not after. It is difficult to armor up during the battle and it is, of course, fruitless to armor up after the battle is over.

So often I have heard (and have even said myself) that the best way to improve our prayer life is to use the Nike motto, “Just do it.”  There is some truth to that because we cannot get better at anything without “doing it.” But if the act of praying automatically improves our prayer life, why do so many (even those who pray frequently) feel their prayer life is inadequate?  Some of us try so hard and use lists and apps and programs and methods but still feel our private prayer time is woefully feeble.

The apostle does not say pray then put on the armor of God. Prayer follows armoring up.  It should be a natural outgrowth of “gearing up.”  In verses 14-17 of the same chapter of Ephesians, Paul tells us what frame of mind we must get ourselves into before stepping onto the battlefield of prayer. We should think about the things of God everyday because Satan is battling us right now.  He does not want us to even step onto the battlefield, but if we do, he wants us to be as naked as possible, leaving all of God’s protection in the locker room.  I saw a cartoon once that showed a bunch of medieval soldiers and one of them is saying to the other, “What?  We have to be skins again?”  That is how we often step into battle against satan.  He tells us we are skins and we believe him.

Paul tells us we need to have His truth, His righteousness, His preparedness to share the gospel, His faithfulness, His salvation, His Spirit, and His Word already with us before we challenge satan on the battlefield he hates the most- the prayer field.  Satan knows we stand the tallest when we are on our knees and he hates that stance.  But if he can get us on our knees superficially, just going through the motions because we feel we have to or because we hope to get something out of it or because it fulfills our duty of the day, he will have kept us weak and wanting.

What, then, is needed? We should thoughtfully commit our hearts to God before we pray.  We should look at each part of the armor and ask ourselves if we really think the armor of God is important.  We must ask, are we missing something important that will hurt us in our prayer battle. Have we received His salvation, are we filled with the Spirit, do we carry His Word with us?  Each of these things (and more) are necessary to have with us before we can have a powerful prayer life. These add depth, meaning, and significance to our prayers. Suddenly our prayers become pointed and purposeful rather than meaningless and mechanical.

Prayer is conversation with God and putting on the armor of God lets us examine the full implications of our faith and we can then talk to God about it. We then know how to prayer because we are better equipped to understand God, ourselves, and the world around us. “Just doing it” is not very effective if we are just going through the motions. If we armor up before prayer we won’t have to be “skins again” and satan will have his hands full with an army of prayer warriors prepared and ready to go!

Have a great Thursday.