Prayer

                 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 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. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6:17-20)

Today’s BibleGateway.com passage starts us into a discussion of the armor of God that I’ve already shared at least twice, so I decided to jump to the end of the discussion, to a passage that tends to be given less attention than it should. We’re all acquainted with the idea of taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, but we tend to stop there, and treat the words following as separate, closing thoughts. But what if it’s not “…which is the word of God. And pray…” but “…which is the word of God, and pray…”?

As we read the account of Jesus’ temptation in the desert and the prayers of people whom we tend to admire in Scripture, they are full of quotes and references to things God has said. In fact, in the first battle recorded in Scripture, Eve does the same thing. She repeats what God has said. The problem is that she quotes it as she interpreted it, and lets go of the argument as soon as the serpent said that God had lied.  Haven’t we all given up so easily?

          I have to admit, I tend to give up easily when it comes to using the word of God. If I don’t get an answer quickly, I move on – God must be saying “No.” That’s too hard on my ego, so I pray for generalities: “Wisdom, direction, attitude, Lord,” or “Bless him, bless her, bless them, bless me, bless me, bless me.” Sometimes it’s easier to give up on prayer beyond “Thy will, Lord.”

          There are people who accuse those who ask others to pray for them or with them of being cowards and wimps – trying to gang up on God to get Him to do what they ask. There are others who say that prayer is useless. If God knows all and if nothing can thwart Hill will why bother praying.

          And the answer I generally hear is that the goal of prayer isn’t so much to change God’s mind, as it is to change ours. While that is at least partially true, it gives the impression that there’s a sort of contest in which I am always the loser. This morning, a conversation I had recently came to mind. Someone asked me why we’re still mandating masks at church. I mentioned a couple people who attend who have health issues and was told that they can keep wearing masks, but that shouldn’t mean we have to. I said that wearing masks was a way of showing love and compassion to them.

          What if our praying is not about our convincing God of anything, or even about convincing ourselves of anything? When you pray to God, no matter what it’s about, you are reaching out as a person to his/her lover, a child to a parent, a creature to its Creator. Even if you aren’t actively loving Him (your prayers may be selfish, after all,) you are still interacting with Him on the most intimate level.

If you pray for someone – even yourself – you tend to act out of love. You want what’s best for them – or yourself. When you consider the relational aspects involved, prayer is love. The more you pray for someone, if those prayers are more than just mindless rituals, the more potential there is for a growth of love for them.

I’ve told these stories before. I attended a retreat years ago at which God convicted me about rejecting the tokens of love, and therefore the love, that others had given me. God also made it clear years later that I wasn’t to inform only those people I liked about a treat I’d brought to work. I also had to tell the people I didn’t like. Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for them. If prayer is, or can be an act of love, then what Paul has asked of the Ephesians is that they love him by praying that God would lovingly make him able to love others the way he should. 

All of this suggests that not only is the word of God an effective sword to use against our enemy, but that prayer, which is love, is also a weapon.