Prayer and the Armor of God
We have come to the conclusion on our study of the Armor of God, we have studied all the physical aspects of the armor but there is still one aspect that is often overlooked. We have seen that the enemy has burning arrows used to bring us doubt and insecurity, but we believers also have a weapon that can be used to help ourselves and others. This can be found in Ephesians 6:18, “18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” As believers we have the unique ability to come before the God who made Heaven and Earth and make petitions before Him, this is why prayer is the artillery fire against the enemy. There is no matter to small that we could bring before Him. Prayer allows us to speak to God, to ask Him for His help in situations that are beyond us, how we praise God for what He has done in our lives, how we can ask Him to intervene in others lives, and how we can ask for guidance as we study His Word.
So how should we pray? First we should pray earnestly and that is with a sincere and intense conviction. We need to take prayer seriously. As seen in Ephesians 6:18, there are many types of prayers and requests and this can be seen all throughout the Bible. Look at Hanna’s prayer for a child or Solomon’s prayer for discernment. The Bible is filled with different types of prayers, not all of them asking God for His guidance on an issue, if you go through the book of Psalms there are plenty of prayers that just praise God for His majesty.
Ephesians 6:18 also tells us that we need to be alert and continually praying for all of the Lord’s people. This means that we need to be aware of what is going on around us. If we know of someone who is going through a hard time, we should pray for them. If we see needs being met around us we need to praise God for it. And we absolutely need to be praying for the leaders in charge of our Nations. This is not the only reason for us to be alert to what is going on around us though. Look at Luke 22:39-46, “39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. 45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” In this passage Jesus rebukes the disciples for not being alert and praying. We need to be constantly in prayer with God so that we do not fall into temptation. When the aspect of prayer is ignored, we begin to lose our connection with the Father and lose the will to study His Word. This allows doubts to set in and we leave ourselves open to the flaming arrows of the enemy.
It is also important to note here that when Jesus was praying, He was praying for the Father’s will, not Jesus’s will, to be done. When we are praying we need to examine our motives. Often I hear people say that they have stopped praying because they felt that their prayers where not being heard, in reality they were trying to fit their will into the plans that God has. They were in short, giving God an ultimatum, a “Do this or...” This mentality is not the purpose of prayer and will not be answered. “3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” James 4:3. When we are praying we need to be sure that we are praying with the right attitude and motives. When Jesus was praying in the garden, He was asking that there be another way. He didn’t want to face having the Father turn away from Him, but ultimately Jesus was asking the will of the Father to be done. And if you noticed, by praying for the Father’s will to be done, Jesus was strengthened. We will also be strengthened through prayer as long as we are praying for the Father’s will to be done.
When praying, we also need to be thankful, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Colossians 4:2. Prayer is not just a time to ask God for something, it is also a time to praise Him. This could not just be for how He is working in our lives, the answered and unanswered prayers, but to praise Him for the work of Salvation. The book of Psalms if filled with prayers of being thankful. We are also called to “pray without ceasing,”1 Thessalonians 5:17. We need to always be praying, not just in the hard times but also in the good. Thank God for the joys and the struggles that you are going through. He is in charge of both, Lamentations 3:37-38, “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?”
As believers, we also have an exciting aspect when it comes to prayer. We can come before the Lord without fear. “6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all]comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7. Through prayer we receive God's peace because we know that He hears us and will answer according to His perfect will and not our imperfect will. We have already seen in past posts that when we worry and allow doubts to set in we become less effective in spreading the Gospel. When we worry we are saying that God is not big enough to handle our issues, which is simply not true. There is no issue to big or too small for God, we only need to come before Him earnestly, confidently, and with a humble heart. Many Christians today are not wanting to pray because this world is getting worse but we should not lose heart. Continue to bring your petitions before God and see what He can do and stand firm in your faith. “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart,” Luke 18:1.
As mentioned above, prayer is our artillery fire against the enemy. Prayer is the most offensive weapon that we have because we do not have to be close to someone, physically or relationship, to be praying for them. When believers are praying for someone and that person knows it, it gives them a sense that they are not alone in the situation they are in. We can also be praying for the nonbelievers that we know, and we should be praying for them that God will soften their hearts and bring them to Him. Remember, there is not one single person out there that God would want to see depart from Him forever.
Prayer is also the biggest asset that we have because we know that God hears us and will answer. “3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3. When we call on the Lord He will answer us, it may not always be in the way that we would desire but when we are through the situation we will see that God’s will is much better than our own. We should also be praying for understanding, this will allow the Holy Spirit to work through us and guide us, to tell us the great and unsearchable things that we don’t understand right away in the Bible. For more information on how the Holy Spirit guides us in understanding the Bible please go back and read our post on the Sword of the Spirit.
So while we know that God does hear us, there is a catch to it. “7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7 this verse shows us how we should be praying. We must abide in Him, we need to know Jesus’s salvation for Him to hear our prayers. Once you have accepted Jesus Christ into your life then you will have continuous access to the Father and His will through prayer. This still does not mean that prayer is a “get anything you want” card, we must be praying for His will to be done and pray for His will to be made known to us. “The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” Proverbs 15:29. We have seen through the Breastplate of Righteousness that we can be found righteous before the Lord when we accept Him, but for those who have not come to that moment of accepting Jesus Christ into their life they are far from the Lord. If you are not a believer then you do not have that connection with God, but if you wish to accept His free gift of salvation then He will hear you. “5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5
What about the moments in life when you are unsure how to pray or what to pray about? When those times come, and they will, we need to lean on the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us what to pray about. “26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26 Do not let not knowing what to pray for or how to pray stop you from praying, when those moments happen speak to God and say that He knows the situation and knows what is on your heart and ask for His will to be done. When these moments of uncertainty on how to pray occur, we need to be praying that we do not fall into temptation and stay strong in the Spirit. It is moments like these that we need to be digging deeper and spending more time in the Word. “41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”” Matthew 26:41
Since we know that God is all knowing, we can be assured that He knows what we are praying about before we ourselves know. This fact is evident in Matthew 6:5-8, “5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” These verses gives us a great example on how not to pray. When we pray we should not be doing it to make a spectacle, it should be a time between you and the Heavenly Father. To many people use the act of prayer to try to show others how “good” or “religious” they are being, these people often times do not truly know the Heavenly Father and are like the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-14. “10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed[a] thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”” These people use prayer as a way to extort themselves and not petition to God. Matthew 6:5-8 also tells us not to babble when we pray. Another way to phrase this is to not use repetitive words. Repetitive words, mantras, or focusing and repeating one word over and over is not Biblical and there are many in our churches who do this.
How awesome is the final but most overlooked part of the body of Armor. If more believers would recognize the power of Biblical prayer, we would see that our battle being not against flesh and blood would be turned upside down against the forces of the devil. We would see the gates of Hell not being able to stop us, we would be able to stand firm in Jesus Christ and proclaim the gospel without hesitation no matter the circumstances. Prayer helps strengthen our brothers and sisters no matter how far they physically are from us, calls in aid no matter how distant the support could be, and gives us clarification on our current orders no matter how chaotic the circumstances. Ask any soldier, and they will remind you that support does not have to be seen to be called for.
Seek the Truth and Encourage One Another,
Alex