Spiritual Battles

Perseverance is a continual battle. I’m not the persevering sort. Every chore on my list requires great determination to start, never mind finish. Even the things I enjoy require perseverance. I started a quilt last week and even though I enjoy making quilts, had to push myself to finish it. Even though spending time with God is more delightful than anything else (including quilt making), pressing on in prayer is far more challenging than all other things, easy or difficult.

This morning, my read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year brought me to Malachi 3:14. God is rebuking His people. They go about as if they are sorry for sin, then complain that this religious activity has no profit. God says, “You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts?’”

My prayer burden for other people and sorrow for their sin and mine is genuine, yet at times I fall into thinking that prayer is a huge waste of time. It is useless to serve God this way. I don’t see any answers and I’ve much to do that seems more useful.

This verse rebuked me too. Whining about lack of results and thinking that something God commands me to do is useless is just as bad a sin as the hypocrisy in Malachi’s day. In fact, God has shown me the importance of prayer over and over again. In Amos 3:7, He says, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”

That verse strongly suggests what my experience verifies; when God is going to do something, He first reveals it to those who will pray (His prophets), and does not act until that prayer is offered. It is the will and plan of God to include the prayers of His people in His activities.

Then I think, my prayers are just words, I’d rather be doing something. I read 1 Corinthians 4:20 this morning too. It says, “For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.”

This is another rebuke. God’s kingdom isn’t built or established by mere talk, but it is established through the power of prayer. Prayer is not mere talk. It is communication with God. Actually, it is not so much me talking to Him, but if I am in tune, it is God speaking to my heart and out of my mouth. Prayer is God using His people to say His thoughts back to Him.

This is a stupendous truth. He will act, but first He reveals His desire and expects me to say it. As I do, He answers. Why He works this way is a mystery, but He does use prayer.

Last month I prayed every day for a man who has withdrawn from his family. Months go by with no word at all from him. This week he showed up at a family gathering. Not only that, he spent time with one person with whom there has been no communication for years and years. How can I say that it is useless to pray, to serve God this way?

A few years ago, I read (also in Malachi) that God will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. I prayed for a certain person who had left his family. In a few months, the family was back together—the heart of the father restored to his children and to his wife also. How can I say it is useless to pray, to serve God this way?

My conclusion is that the whispered words of ‘useless’ are not my own. My enemy, the liar and father of lies, wants me to stop. I’m messing with his plans and he knows too that God does not act unless He reveals His secrets to His praying people. If he can keep me from praying, then he can thwart the plan of God.

Yet this scheme is not a secret that he can hide. God reveals it to me to encourage me to keep praying. He reminds me too that every prayer is heard and He uses every prayer to build His kingdom. Prayer is not mere words but power, not my power, but the power of God.