Pray BadSýnishorn

Prayer: What is it? 

Growing up in a mostly non-religious family, prayer was this weird thing my grandmother did that made me wonder if she was crazy. Coming to faith in Christ in my 20s, I began to realize that prayer was real, but I was still unsure about it in a lot of ways. I think the biggest question I had about prayer was, "What is it for?"

One of the most often quoted passages in the Bible is about Paul’s armor of God in Ephesians. People use this passage all the time to encourage one another to share their faith and do great things, but take a moment to read the beginning and end of this passage. Paul starts by talking about spiritual warfare and ends by saying that we put on all this armor so that we can pray.

I thought prayer was mostly to ask God to give you things, but I was wrong. Prayer is all about spiritual warfare, and according to Paul, it is incredibly important to followers of Jesus.

So, what is spiritual warfare? I know it sounds crazy, but the Bible tells us that it’s a spiritual war being waged in the invisible and spiritual world between good and evil.

Now let’s be clear. I’m not trying to communicate that every bad thing happening in your life is a supernatural attack, but there is an enemy working against us who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy our lives. 

Prayer is the mechanism God has given us to tap into His power. Without prayer, we'll be unsuccessful in spiritual warfare. But with it, we have the potential to overcome and be victorious!