Safe in His ArmsSample

Pillow Talk

Prayer is not a way to win; it is the only way to win.

Jesus came to this earth to save us from our sin and point us to the Father. However, when you think about how often Jesus slipped away from the crowds to talk to the Father, we cannot deny the high emphasis Jesus placed on prayer. 

When I was young in my faith with very little understanding of the Bible, I began to notice how often Jesus prayed. I wrestled with the idea if Jesus felt the need to pray throughout His journey in this world, how much more should I? Even though I respected prayer and saw my desperate need to talk with God, I was clueless. What should I say? How should I say it? What could I tell God that He did not already know? What if I said something wrong? The fear I’d say the wrong thing kept me from praying at all. I heard it once said, “Satan doesn’t care if we go to church. He doesn’t care if we go to the mission field. What scares Satan the most is a kneeling Christian speaking to their loving and powerful God.” 

As we face the coming days, fearful of the many “what if’s,” our greatest defense is prayer. Many people have called prayer a Christian’s greatest weapon. I do believe prayer is powerful, but I’ve yet to see in Scripture the power being in the words spoken in prayer or even in the one praying. Instead, the power is in the One being spoken to, God Almighty. 

Let’s learn from the best, Jesus! Overwhelmed with grief in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus knelt down to pray. In great agony, His sweat became like drops of blood. He fell to the ground and uttered the words, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” (Mark 14:36) It was not the words, but the surrender to God's will that gave Him the power to face His enemy, death. Now, that’s genuine godly power! 

Even if it does not change our circumstances, prayer changes us. Prayer does not demand our will; it changes our perspective and hearts to desire God’s will. 

Our weapon to fight any fear, crisis, doubt, or insecurity aiming to wage war against our minds, soul, and spirit is to surrender each longing, concern, and fear in prayer with a steadfast desire to do whatever God asks. Let me tell you, this isn’t easy to do! Jesus can testify to this. However, when we walk in God’s will, we can be confident we are walking on conquered ground. Like we said yesterday, our battles are already won! We can take our position as His child and enter into His presence to share our life experiences with our conquering King! Death could not hold Him down and the threat of death cannot get us down. A life surrendered to His will is a life worth living!