Is your prayer just about you?
Last week I shared a tidbit of my own personal prayer life and the contrast between the overwhelming feeling of theres so much work to be done (to win the battle against evil) and the peaceful feeling of it will be done because God is holding it all in His hands. *Cue the children’s song that goes “He’s got the whoooole world in His hands”… You know the one. If you also follow With Heart on Instagram, you’ll notice I usually just post a lil recap or excerpt of what you see here on the Blog. However, I do want to also revisit a few of the things I mentioned over there that way we can have a full and level foundation of what I want to talk about today.
One of the most baffling attributes of God is that He is self sufficient. His goodness does not rely on our successes, and His success does not rely on our cooperation. The baffling part about all of this is that He chooses to invite us into His divine plan anyways. I think of it like this, if you’re a mother or a caretaker maybe you’ll relate too; It’s like having your toddler help you make the pancakes in the morning. It would be so much faster, easier, cleaner, to just make the pancakes yourself, but out of charity you let the toddler dump the measuring cup in the bowl, you let the the toddler over mix the batter. It’s not necessarily the most efficient way, but it’s a beautiful way because now that toddler gets to share in the accomplishment of having made breakfast. Could you have done it yourself? Yes. Did you even need help? Not at all. But now the toddler knows how to work with you rather than against you, they’ve fine-tuned their motor skills of turning the measuring cup upside-down. They now know what it’s like to co-create. In contrast to God’s self-sufficiency, we need Him every waking moment. Now more than ever. As I am sure you are all aware, theres a lot of crap going on in our world and in our country. I’m not going to get political, this is not that type of platform, but I am going to address how we can even begin to think about combatting these evils. Evils within ourselves and around us- through the weapon of prayer.
The Bible tells us exactly what we need to do, and in Ephesians the paragraph is literally named “Battle against evil”. How more direct do you want the Lord to be?
Read:
Ephesians 6:10-20
Hebrews 4:12
Romans: 12:1-2
2 Corinthians 10:3-11
With these and many other bible verses, it’s clear that prayer is our ultimate weapon against the devil (James 4:7). Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that there is a right and wrong way to pray, but I will say that I think there is a more and less fruitful way of praying. Your prayer is meant for your edification, absolutely, BUT it is also meant for the edification of others. Hebrews 4:12 states that the Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two edged sword. If your prayer is only about yourself you’re basically falling on your own sword. You may have slain the evils within yourself, but there is an entire opposing team that needs to be beat. I think of prayer as a two-step process. Prayer is like when you’re in an airplane and the oxygen masks fall (Correct me if I am wrong but I think I got this analogy from Fr. Mike Schmitz). You are always instructed to put on your mask first and then to help the person next to you. In that sense, prayer is critical to spend time with the Lord and allow His spirit to drench you before you can fulfill your commission to go pour out His spirit onto others. You may be thinking I know this, I pray for other people on the time. Okay yeah, but do you go to BATTLE for them in prayer?! I’ve been convicted of this recently, it is not enough to just pray for the things on your heart and then at the end just tack on whatever intentions someone asked you to pray for or to simply ask the Lord “Jesus, bring xyz person to come to know you.” I literally prayed the exact prayer one time for someone who is very dear to me. I was instantly struck by the Lord as I perceived Him say “That’s it? That’s your prayer for them?” Uhhh…yeah? James 5:16 says the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful, and that’s how I was using my prayer? Not good enough. Ephesians 3:20 says the Lord is able to accomplish far more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine. So, ask for the big things on behalf of someone else. Is there someone you couldn’t even imagine ever coming to know Christ? Ask for it! In detail. Pray for the conversion of a lifetime in them so we can in turn see the revival of the century happen all around us.
I have great admiration for Saint Dominic. He was often found in tears in front of the blessed sacrament asking the Lord “What would become of sinners?” I find myself asking the same thing. What will become of the souls who don’t know you and never will? How often do we let our hearts be that touched and concerned for salvation in prayer? I love asking the Lord this because it not only gives me an awareness of how I can aid and pray for the salvation of souls, but it also reiterates the inescapable truth that I am also a sinner. What will become of me, Lord, if I neglect to fear you, serve you, love you? Help me to do those things so that I may be holy and in turn bring others to you. The ugliness and sin we are seeing in ourselves and in the world are not just our human pride. We are under attack every waking moment by the demonic powers that serve the evil one-the father of lies. This is not some warning to strike fear, rather, indignation. Yes, we’re sinners, but we have already been washed and redeemed by the blood of Christ and because of that truth we hold ridiculous superiority through Jesus over those pestilent demonic powers. The Lord is calling and inviting us to participate in bringing others to walk in salvation. Your prayers could mean the rebirth of someone who desperately needs it. Don’t be so arrogant as to think we can mess up God’s plan for someone else by our refusal to help carry it out, the Lord is too powerful and self sufficient to allow anything but His will to pass. He knows how to make the pancakes by Himself. But be aware that if we say yes to Him, it is for our benefit and learning much like the toddler’s in the kitchen. He will win the battle with or without you (Matthew 16:18), but don’t you want to say you were a part of the winning side? Not as a mere bystander or cheerleader, but as an active soldier in the battle?
Be not afraid. Like Ephesians 6 says put on your suit of righteousness so you can in turn fight for others. What soldier goes to battle without armor? What does putting on your suit of righteousness mean though, how can we actually dress ourselves for this? That’s a discussion for another week. In the meantime, PRAY. Pray for yourself, pray for others. (Practically I like to have two separate times of prayer, one for my own needs, and one for the needs of others that way my I am fully attentive to each when I sit down to pray). If you are discouraged pray, if you feel ignited by the spirit, pray, if you are letting demonic powers rule over your life, repent and pray. For the sake of your soul, for the sake of their souls, for the sake of our country and families, and for the sake of His sorrow passion.
With Heart, Ellie