If ever there was a time to pray – it is now.
Friends, would you consider praying with us? We have been deeply convicted as an organization to increase our reliance on God through prayer. You can sign up to pray here: https://reclaimministries.org/prayer/ and once signed up you will receive weekly prayer updates. If you are on Facebook you can join our private Facebook prayer group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/305377537539433/ We will post identical updates to both of these places.
What we are witnessing right now in our world is the collision of kingdoms – the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness – in an ever increasingly violent battle for the human heart. Do you see it?
I believe that spirits of hatred and death have been released on the earth by the Kingdom of Darkness and that much of what we are seeing right now (bitterness, fear, divisiveness, resentment, accusation, contempt, violence, rage, i.e.) are coming from people under their influence. The tension is so thick that you can literally feel it!
Jesus told us that this day would come: “due to the increase of wickedness upon the earth, the love of most will grow cold” Matthew 24:12. This is happening as I write this. Even within the church there seems to be a confusion and division about how to proceed…and the spirits of accusation and offense are running high!
Jesus also told us how to respond in this hour: stand firm! And one of the main ways we do this is by staying close to Him…through prayer.
So why is it that prayer often feels like a last resort instead of a first response? Here are 3 reasons we don’t pray:
- We don’t know how to pray. We just sort of assume that people know how to pray. Like it’s a skill you magically learn when becoming a follower of Jesus. Yet the disciples recognized the need to learn how to pray when they asked Jesus to “teach us how to pray”. I’ve been a follower of Jesus for over 20 years and yet only recently learned how to pray. Here is a book that has helped me immensely: Moving Mountains by John Eldredge https://smile.amazon.com/dp/071808859X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_xbncFbVW2PAYW
- We don’t believe it works. Because we’ve never really learned how to pray, our efforts to pray end up feeling futile, desperate or obligatory. And we end up concluding: God is all-powerful, right? Well…I prayed and God didn’t answer, so I guess it’s not His will to intervene. In the book I referenced above John state: “the uncomfortable truth is this: that is a very naive view of God, on a level of believing that all a marriage needs is love”. Prayer does work, but like everything else, there is a way things work and we need to learn it. Did I mention that you should get the book “Moving Mountains”?
- We are forgetful. I am SO prone to forgetting the prayers God has answered. And there are many. If you don’t already journal, I suggest you start now. You need a place to record your thoughts and feelings. A place where you can write out your prayers and requests, so that you can come back to them later and see how God has answered them!
Stand firm my brothers and sisters, I know the hour feels overwhelming, but Jesus has overcome the world and because He has overcome we WILL overcome! -Todd
