Ephesians 6:18–20 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for
all the saints—19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may
open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for
which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I
ought to speak.
Prayer! “Now I lay me down to sleep.” I learned about prayer at an early age
in life. Prayer was something I was taught as a child. My mother prayed with
her children at night before going to bed. I heard prayer in the church. I
don’t know if I was taught about prayer being a constant part of the
Christian life.
Prayer is a constant part of the Christian life. It is the communication
necessary to live a successful Christian life. Prayer is talking to God. Prayer
is more listening to God.
God speaks! Prayer is listening. Listening to God speak. The mind, the heart,
the soul is tuned to God. Paul has written about putting on the “full armor of
God.” Wiersbe writes, “Prayer is the energy that enables the Christian soldier
to wear the armor and wield the sword.”
When is the Christian to pray? Always! There must be an unbroken line of
communication with God. The Christian must pray “in the Spirit. The focus
must be on the One True God. We do not pray to another god…there is no
other God but the God of the Bible.
We must persevere, persist, endure in prayer. In bad times we must pray. In
good times we must pray. Jesus said in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray,
that you do not enter into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak.”
We pray for ourselves, and we pray for other believers, followers of
Christ. Many followers of Christ struggle. Many want to stand but are weak.
We must pray for them! By the way, pray for the pastor. Peter said in Acts
8:24, “…Pray to the Lord for me, that none of the things which you have
spoken may come upon me.”
We have only lived a short time in the history of Christianity. We have not
witnessed everything that has happened since Christs resurrection. Many
have lived enough to witness the destruction of Christianity in the United
States. For me the last 70 plus years has been a great demise of Christianity.
Prayer, true prayer before God is necessary for the believer, for
the church, and for the United States of America to stand and succeed.