Life is one long, exhausting journey of a thousand setbacks.
Occasionally there are triumphs, but mostly not.
Mostly you slog. Mostly you punch the empty air. Mostly you go to bed at night in the quiet darkness and wonder what it all means and why you even bothered.
Don’t worry, this isn’t an attempt to make you depressed. Just recognizing that following Christ is difficult, and “anyone who says differently is selling something.”1
Thankfully, we have not been sent to this hellish battlefield of earth without a tool for communicating to our High Command.
Yahweh, the builder of the universe, has done something for us that we could never deserve in a hundred lifetimes: He has given us the ability to speak to Him.
Even more stunning? He actually listens to what we say.
We get used to things. We’re used to a giant metal object that can lift off into the air and then not touch down again until it reaches the other side of the world—all while carrying people in relative comfort. Every other generation of human history prior to the 20th century would have screamed witchcraft for even pretending that was possible. For us, it’s more about how annoying it is to deal with getting the middle seat in economy class.
We’re used to having a small device in our pocket that can communicate instantly with anyone anywhere in the world, send high definition videos to that person, send money to that person, then let us search for restaurants nearby, all within the same minute. You don’t need to go back further than 30 years for that to have seemed like witchcraft, too.
With that in mind, it’s understandable for us to get used to the idea that we can speak words out loud that are then heard by an infinitely powerful almighty deity who rules from a throne of fire in a transcendent eternal realm.
We take prayer for granted. We don’t prioritize it. We get annoyed when it isn’t answered in a way we can immediately discern.
Still, this truth remains: the only way to endure life with any chance of seeing victory is through prayer.
Someone out there is rolling their eyes, and I would be willing to guess that the reason you are rolling your eyes is because you view prayer how a westerner in the 21st century typically views it. It seems trite and hollow. It seems useless. If we’re being honest with ourselves, we don’t think it does anything. Therefore, we drift away from it. It contains no instant fixes for what ails us. Why bother?
I don’t think many Christian men outright reject prayer; more like they don’t quite understand what it is and why it matters. It doesn’t have scientifically predictable and observable results rooted in the application of effort, which is something our minds are conditioned to define as valuable.
Prayer is essential to the life of the Christian warrior. Not because I say it is, not because your pastor says it is, not even because your mother says it is. Prayer is essential because our Lord Jesus Christ says it is.
Pray then in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
-Matthew 6:9-1
In this passage we find our Lord giving His orders for how we are to pray and what we are to pray for. In doing this, He is establishing its centrality in our lives.
He says who to pray to: our Father.
He says what to prayerfully expect: the rule and reign of Yahweh on earth as it is in heaven.
He says that from it, we receive nourishment.
He says it spiritually cleanses us.
He says it helps us forgive others because we are in need of forgiveness ourselves.
He says it guards us from sin and temptation.
He says it is our covering protection from evil.
He says it surrenders all to our glorious Creator and His will.
The act of prayer generates results, indeed.
It would be wonderful to have timely answers and supernatural movement for everything we face. Sometimes we get that. But when we don’t, we must keep at it. We must discipline our lives around it. We must crave every free minute we can get to pray. We must scream out in despair and wail out in triumph just like David did on sun-scorched Philistine battlefields when all hope seemed lost.
Too weak and despairing to even form words? The Scriptures promise that the Holy Spirit Himself will intercede with words for you.2
We must sit quietly before Him and wait for the words to come from the Spirit inside us because our strength is finished.
Prayer is central. It is not a battlefield, it is the battlefield, and we are on the winning side. We are fighting from victory.
In general it’s pretty simple. Groan, scream, whisper, utter, wail. Do whatever you need to do, but direct it to your Father.
Keep it simple. “Pray then in this way.”
Praise and Arrows.
Never be afraid to quote The Princess Bride.
Romans 8:26