Prayer is the Answer to your Prayers

God has a real sense of humor and a sixth sense when it comes to knowing the things we need. I guess that’s why He is called Jehovah Jireh, meaning “The Lord will provide,” as He has promised us he will provide if we seek Him in prayer.

Now I know most of us do pray to God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit to help us in our daily lives for different things. But is your prayer life a consistent and required routine on the same level as eating, sleeping and breathing? I can say without hesitation my answer is No. In my head I ask, “Why do I need to pray so much, I pray whenever I can remember to, isn’t that enough?” Well the answer is No again.

One Seed of Doubt Can Harvest More

On more than one occasion I have had moments where all of a sudden I felt an emptiness inside. I would not be able to specifically pinpoint what was wrong, as on paper my life always seemed great. But in spite of a great life, I’d start to think about all the things that weren’t perfect in my life and a spirit of depression came over me. I’d start to think about all the things I don’t have in my life. No husband, no kids, no house, the need of more money, and then the flood gates opened to more negative thoughts. Why was I feeling this way and what could I do to help myself? I had let one moment of doubt and fear enter my mind and now I was filled with sadness and a feeling of not being enough.

All Roads Lead to War

As I sat there, I asked God for help, and all of a sudden this movie call War Room popped into my head. It was a movie I had been saying I wanted to watch after I heard about it in church last year, but never made time to see it. So I found it online and decided that I had nothing to lose in watching it and pressed play.

war room

The movie was about a successful couple who seemed to have everything on the surface, but were miserable behind closed doors. The had a daughter who felt unworthy because her parents were constantly fighting and inadvertently neglecting her in the process.

The premise of the movie was following the wife who met a older widow through business dealings who saw a need in the this woman to help her  with her problems. At first the woman didn’t feel she needed any help as her family went to church and did pray, until one day she overheard her daughter telling a friend how she is unhappy and unloved by her parents. This conversation propelled the mother to seek guidance from the widower on how to save her family. And the answer of course, was a consistent strategic prayer life.

Prayer is a Powerful Weapon

Now let’s be clear, I do have a relationship with God, I make my request in times of trouble known to God when I remember to, and I acknowledge and thank God for all the blessings I’ve receive as well. But when you think about prayer as strategic battle strategy to defend off the enemies that try to distract us or harm us instead of just a daily habit, that takes things up a notch.

My career is in marketing and advertising. I have helped many big name companies market their brand and products to consumers. And in my experience, the most successful marketing happens when the company and ad agency have created a well thought out strategic marketing plan and campaign that clearly works to meet the objectives, goals and accomplishes set tasks. The anticipated plan always wins out over reactionary ideas or in the moment decisions.

Based on this theory why would we expect any less when it comes to our prayer lives? In order for prayer to be a powerful tool and weapon against those that seek us out to destroy us or throw us course, we must have a battle plan ready at all times.

Go to Battle Strategy Needed

In order to prepare for the dangers and trials that are working to harm us now and in the future we need to:

• First make a decision to surrender yourself fully to God. This means acknowledging that you are not in control of the situation and that you will relinquish your fight over to God.
• Identify the problem areas in your life. These are the things that have kept you up at night, problems you have not been able to resolve and brick walls you keep reaching and can’t break through or climb over.
• Know the real enemy. It’s time to remember that Satan, not God, is the reason and force behind most issues we face. Its not your partner/spouse, the job, a bad situation or even an aggravating person we face that is the problem. Its Satan using these issues against you in his favor to weaken your faith and distract you from focusing on God.
• Fight the real enemy with the Word of God. We must turn to God in prayer. The bible says in Philippians 4:11, that we should not worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Start by following these steps and I also highly recommend that you check out the movie War Room for yourself. My hope is that you will start to see how a purposeful and planned prayer life can change the course of your life, your family and any other area in your life that needs improvement.

I challenge you to see for yourself the power of prayer. And if you are not happy with the results then you can take that up with God, but I’m sure that won’t be necessary. Here is a link to the movie War Room and a link to the movie site for reference material.