Tag: prayer

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This is how I fight my battles…

It may look like I am surrounded,
But I am surrounded by you.
Surrounded, Upperroom

It was the weekend of my 21st birthday. I vividly remember it.

The phone rang at my mom’s house. It was oddly enough my dad. Oddly enough, because my parents are divorced and my dad rarely called. There was a subtle, yet unsettled sound in his voice.  He was trying to calmly convey a catastrophe of situation. 

His words were “don’t panic, but Craig is missing. He has been for 24 hours.”

I fought tears as I handed the phone to my mom chasing down every crazy thought you could think when you just found out your older brother is nowhere to be found.. As my mom hung up the phone in what felt like a moment of slow motion, I simply remember her response. She crashed as only mom’s tend to do. She collapsed to her knees and called out to the Lord. She prayed vehemently, almost violently. As a Pentecostal, she prayed in the Spirit, because there are prayers we pray that we just do not have language for. 

It was not the first time I had seen my mom respond this way, this one just stood out. In all her teaching and instructing me over the years on praying, the words were flat compared to her actions. This moment, this response to the world crashing in on us, was the response of woman falling on her Lord.

Unquestionably, my mom was going to do everything in her strength to find my brother, yet she knew her strength was not enough. Everything with my brother would turn out fine, yet in that moment, I learned to fight.

Paul wrote: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

The lesson learned was that when life crashes in all around you, you fall to the safest place, the arms of the Lord. I learned that war is not about simply standing tall, it is falling low, even at times face down on the ground. I learned the posture of victory is the same posture as surrender, arms extended up. I learned what it meant to fight.

A mama’s prayers are always important. Yet, at some point the prayers of a mom or dad are simply not enough. You have to learned to fight the battles for yourself. Someone can always pray for you, but no one can pray in place of you. Often where we learn to fight is in the middle of the battle. That is when we have to stand arms extended or fall to our knees. Our posture of war is praise. Our weapons are prayer.

I don’t know what fight you are fighting, but I know how to fight it.

So this is how I fight my battles.
This is how I fight my battles.

Life in the cave
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More than transactional prayer

“But when you pray…”
~Jesus

Vending Machine Repairman

Have you ever put your folded up dollar bill in the vending machine with your eye on what it is you want?

After finally, sliding the crumpled bill back on forth on the side of the machine to re-establish a crispness that the mouth of the guardian of the snacks would accept, you punch B27. The cyclone arm spins to project your tasty delight to bottom the pit of sugar and carbs and then it happens.

The hanger.

Trapped on the edge staring you in the eye with temptation toward violence is the very thing you wanted. Dangling there. Hanging ever so slightly on the metal blockade keeping you from what you wanted. Now you are faced with decision to hip-check the machine like a hockey player trying to win a Stanley Cup or attempt to unhinge the sweet treat by sliding your arm into a vortex of terror where it may not come back attached to your shoulder.

This has often been my attitude of prayer – in need of a vending machine repairman and change in attitude. 

I uncrinckle my journal, click my pen and deposit my two cents to Jesus and request his goodness in return. I put in my deposit simply in hopes of getting out of the Lord what I want. My prayer like has at times been less personal and more transactional. In seasons, I have turned the most important relationship a person can have into nothing more than a vending machine with a bag of bold, party blend Chex Mix.

Expectation is not bad.

The prayer of faith should have a level of expectation attached to it. That is what faith is. Share on X

The prayer of faith should have a level of expectation attached to it. That is what faith is. Faith is believing and hoping for what we cannot see. So when we pray, a faith that expects God to answer is not incorrect.

In fact Jesus brother wrote these words:

“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

‭‭James‬ ‭1:6-7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In fact, we SHOULD pray with faith that God desires to answer our prayer. We should believe God wants to heal. We should pray with faith that God does want to provide. We should pray with a belief that God not only will answer but desires to answer.

Check your heart.

It is not so much the what, as often as it is the why behind the what we pray for. Before you ask, ask why am I asking.

Jesus prayed this in the garden:

“He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭26:42‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If what you ask is simply about you and your desire and not for the glory and honor of God, then we may need to check your heart.

Ask your Father.

When I was a kid, I knew I was halfway to what I wanted when mom said “go ask you dad.” The unofficial percentages where 75% of the time we ended up at Showbiz Pizza when mom deflected to dad.

Sometimes a simple shift in how we see who God is changes how we ask. I realize this is as sticky as the syrup bottle at midnight on the table at IHOP. We all have different understandings of “father”. Some good, some terrible. Some as provider, some as absent. Some as ever present, caring and kind. Some as the worst nightmare.

While the lens of God the father is filtered by our earthly father, we have to put to bed what is not true. Jesus said of his Father this:

““Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:9-11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

He is your Father. He longs to give good gifts. The greatest gift an earthly father can give is snack mix compared to what your Heavenly Father longs to give.

More than a transaction.

Prayer is not me putting in my prayer and pulling out what I want. Prayer has to become my putting myself in a position to spend time with a father who loves me more than I can imagine. It has to become more than me getting what I want and me getting to know my Father. It is more than a business transaction, it is a intersection of two hearts.

Feeling ashamed?

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