The Battle is Won with Prayer
There is a spiritual war raging around us. Whether we are aware of it or not, everyone is experiencing some type of spiritual battle. This battle is being fought in the hearts and minds of our young people, our world leaders, our church leaders, and each of us.
The Bible says that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV).
Satan is fighting to implant lies about ourselves and about God into our beliefs. He is fighting to pull our focus away from Christ.
He is fighting to distract us from our mission as believers with earthly concerns. Satan is battling for our souls and the souls of those we love.
But we have a strong weapon, something the devil can never destroy — prayer.
Because our battle is not flesh and blood, the Bible says that “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4, ESV).
When we feel the tension of spiritual warfare in our own hearts and minds as we notice faulty thinking about God or we are tempted to have our focus and affections pulled to the temporary things of this world instead of the eternal matters of the kingdom of God, then we must seek the face of the Lord and cry to Him for help.
When we pray and ask the Lord to protect us from the attacks of the evil one, whatever that may look like for us, and we ask Him for strength to resist the temptation to sin, then we are effectively defeating the evil powers of this world in our hearts and minds.
Satan knows that we cannot win the battle without God, but he tries to convince us otherwise by telling us that other things can save us. The devil has led so many people to believe that their good behavior will give them eternal life in the presence of God or that they really don’t need God to live a fulfilling life.
Prayer expresses our reliance on God and His power, dispelling these lies.
Prayer also realigns our affections and desires to be as they ought to be. When we pray for the salvation of our lost friends experiencing spiritual warfare, we recognize what really matters in this world and what does not.
Satan attacks us by trying to move our focus to things of this world that ultimately have no value.
Money, fame, and other trivial issues that ultimately do not contribute to someone’s eternity are all things the devil uses to get our focus off of God. Prayer keeps our eyes fixed on Him.
When all hope for our spiritual battles seems lost, remember who has the victory in the end.
The battle belongs to the Lord and is won through prayer. We are too weak to win this war on our own, but with the mighty power of God, we can see victory over every evil darkness in this world.
