There are times I fall asleep, praying. I know… I should be on my knees and it wouldn’t happen, and there are nights that I am on my knees and it doesn’t happen; but last night, I snuggled under the blankets, started talking to God, and “Zzzzzzzzzz…”
At 2:36am I woke up startled. I’d gone to sleep in mid-sentence and I knew exactly where I had drifted off… I was praying for a friend in need…a friend who had texted and asked me for prayer. And in the middle of my petition to God, I went into La-La Land.
Matthew 26:40-41, “Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, ‘So, couldn’t you stay awake with Me one hour? Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Ahhh, I’m in good company, but do I really want to be?
My dad taught us to respect weapons. We grew-up on a farm. Hunting was a part of it. Not for me…I created a memorial for a squirrel my brother killed, naming the squirrel “Bravely” and writing a poem in his memory; but, I still knew how a gun was used and how to handle it carefully.
The Bible tells us that prayer is a weapon. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”
The power comes with prayer. Prayer delivers the blow. It removes the doubt, the discouragement, the fear. It gives us the resources to defeat the evil that tries to destroy us. Prayer keeps us from the temptations which lead us off the path God has asked us to walk.
We think war is somewhere else – like in the Middle East or in dangerous nations – but our very life is a battlefield – and the weapon God has given for us to defeat the enemy, I fell asleep delivering it. How’s that for a watchman? I wouldn’t want me guarding the neighborhood, would you?
And so, I found myself on my knees at 2:36am, praying the prayer I should have completed when I fell asleep . The prayer my friend needs desperately to defeat a rough time in her life. Realistically, when we are in the middle of the battle, we quickly learn what are weapons are. I once read a quote, “If we knew we were in a war, we’d know what prayer was for. ” Nothing like a good disaster to bring us to our knees, but maybe if we were already on our knees, we wouldn’t be in the disaster. Just sayin…
Use the gift of prayer. Communicate with God daily and see what a difference it will make in your life.
