Tome 30[1] Prayer is where the battle rages March 2011
Part VI in the series Bring Enough Gun[2]
A family crisis has our full attention. Nancy and her siblings have been anxiously perched beside her mom’s bed in the ICU of Ohio State University hospital. The kids and I hang on her every text message and relay the news to friends and family, far and wide. Commitments to pray are a great encouragement but some responses bother me. “You are in our thoughts”, is an all too common expression of sympathy but I just don’t get what it means. Never in recorded history has a circle of good folks ‘thought’ someone off their death bed like some feel-good séance. Does that sound ungrateful of me?
Another expression, usually uttered in mock exasperation, if not apologetically, rattles me even more; “All we can do now, is pray.” ALL you can do? So you think prayer is less important than emptying a bed pan, a sending Hallmark™ card or bringing a tuna casserole to the house? Are these well wishers aware that inside that dusty bible on the coffee table are accounts of prayer raising the dead, parting the seas, restoring nations, healing the broken and even making the sun stand still? What if prayer is the utmost we can do about anything! Maybe, nothing can happen unless an earnest conversation with the Almighty about a certain wisp of a grandma has taken place.
The older I get, the less sense coincidence makes. We’ve been talking about the preparation steps in Ephesians 6 but we have not yet begun the fight until we pray. For another example, just go to a motorcycle rally and you’ll see a whole bunch of people all dressed up as hard core bikers but very few even rode motorcycles there. Go to church next Sunday and you’ll see a whole bunch of people dressed up for church but few conducted any warfare this week. The apostle Paul takes us to the next step:
Ephesians 6 10-12 And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
13-18 Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.
19-20 And don't forget to pray for me. Pray that I'll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all, the Message that I, jailbird preacher that I am, am responsible for getting out. Ephesians 6:10-20 The Message translation
Remember last time when the Israelites and the Philistines-and Goliath- were across the valley from each other trash talking for forty days? They had every piece of weaponry we discussed so far but they hadn’t so much as bumped into one another yet. They were all dressed up, they looked like warriors, practiced, memorized the ‘play-book’, but had not advanced an inch in forty days. Did David’s famous battle begin in that valley where he faced Goliath or was the real battle fought beforehand? In 1 Samuel 17:47 David shouts:
47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
He did not just get that idea right there at that moment. David had relied on God to help him slay the bear and the lion that attacked his flocks. When the prophet Samuel picked him as a young lad, God began investing in him.[3] Somewhere out in the wilds while watching over his flocks, David prayers waged the battle and set the stage for what played out with his sling.
Jehoshaphat [great name for your next child!] was the king when a ‘vast army’ of three tribes picked a fight with his folks. He told everyone to skip lunch and meet him at church[4] for a prayer meeting. Is that a strange way to get ready for or fight or what? Actually he had already put on the armor of God and that’s why he knew what to do. At the end of his prayer the local prophet spoke for God and said:
‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. 17 You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.’”
The story gets weirder. Some general gets the idea that they should put the choir out in front of the army, singing at the top of their lungs[5], as they march to meet their foe. The story ends with Jehoshaphat arriving at a desert valley to find the three enemy armies had destroyed one another in ambushes set by the echoes of God praise from the choir. It took three days to pick up all the loot from the battle they won on their knees in church!
Need more? Gideon prayed and God allowed him three signs before handing the uncountable[6] Midianites into his hands without so much as an arrow in flight. The battle was won when he secretly talked with God. Jericho fell because Joshua spoke with the Lord and followed his instructions[7]. The horn section of the high school band was all he needed for that fight. Daniel won his season of Survivor- Lion’s Den because of his thrice daily prayers with his windows wide open. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego made it through a barbeque gone bad because they were prayed up and declared their fealty before the king. In all these lives the battle raged when they fell to their knees long before flesh and blood fell before God’s hand.
By now most of you are thinking way ahead of me so let’s get to the best example of a battle won on the knees long before the conflict we can see with our eyes. The 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ may be the best attempt yet at depicting the real battle for men’s salvation that occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane. Matthew’s account says,
Chapter 26: 36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” 39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
The horrible physical ordeal, from the beating in the synagogue, the Roman army torture and the crucifixion, are what we focus on when we describe the passion. For us the cross is the symbol of this eternal battle for our salvation. Christ’s perfect knowledge made him fully aware of what lie ahead as he fell to his knees in prayer in that garden. The words of Matthew and Mark together with the scene portrayed in film evidence his being overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death in his pitched battle of for our souls. His ultimate obedience, even unto his death on the cross[8], resulted from winning that spiritual battle when he pledged, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
The preacher, Ravi Zacharias said, “The battle is fought when we commit to a daily communion with the Lord. If we lose this battle, none of the others matter.” Much of what I consider warfare is nothing more than my flailing about. I have not engaged the enemy of my soul and, therefore, there can be no victory, until I fall upon my knees.
Dear Lord, I pray Nancy’s mom, I submit to your will and pray that everyone who reads this will win today battles by offering today’s prayers. Amen.
[1] This is part of a numbered series of writings that began with the financial meltdown in October 2008. I call them Tomes [rhymes with comb for you people with hair on your head] or a volume forming a part of a larger work because some day I may pull them together into a collection. If you wish to receive the entire series or no longer wish to be copied, contact Timothy Bailey @ chiefcredit@tcfbank.com for the entire collection you can now go to www.adifferentstoryblog.blogspot.com
[2] http://www.springfield-armory.com/armory.php?model=18 this marketing campaign around its SOCOM rifle is the genesis of this series.
[3] 1 Samuel 16: 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David.
[4] 2 Chronicles 20:3-4
[5] 21 After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his[c] holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.”
[6] Judges 7 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore
[7] Joshua chapter 5-6
[8] Phillipians 2 6 Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
