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We start our morning with good intentions to have our devotional or quiet time with the Lord, and then somehow, the day slips away before we ever get around to it. We promise ourselves we'll make time to pray before bed, but then exhaustion or sleepiness overtakes us, and soon we're sound asleep.
Satan doesn't want us praying and listening to our Father in Heaven, so he will use his emissaries to intervene, interfere, or interrupt our conversations with the Lord. Really, prayer is just that, a simple conversation with God. Talking to Him about praises, requests, concerns, feelings, hopes, dreams… and then listening for His still small voice answering us through the Holy Spirit.
The more aware we become of Satan's sneaky tactics to stop us from praying, the better prepared we will be to combat and conquer them. See if any of the following satanic ruses have happened to you, and consider trying some of the solutions offered to victory in praying with your Lord and Savior.
Psalm 97:10: You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked. (NLT)
1. Distractions: David Timms describes so well the nature of our spiritual lives today. He writes, "Spiritual ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) runs rampant among us. More and more of us seem unable to be still, to focus, to wait or to listen … We hurry from appointment to phone call to email -- or from school to shopping to sport -- living distraction."
Often, good and necessary things distract our attention away from conversations with God, but our lives would be much less stressful and rushed if we didn't yield to the tyranny of the urgent. Leave the phone in another room while praying. You can always answer a text later or return a phone call. Schedule prayer time on your calendar as a highlighted important appointment you can't, and won't, miss. It doesn't always need to be in the morning, but it does always need to be daily.
Hebrews 11:27: It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king's anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.
2. Your Mind Wanders: You start to pray, and you begin thinking about your to-do list or a news report you just heard or read. Maybe what you're going to make for dinner or a grocery list pops into your mind. A project at work or a problem with a co-worker or neighbor. Satan is not omniscient; he can't know what we're thinking. But he does know how to put thoughts in our minds while we're trying to keep our thoughts on our omniscient God.
The good news is that God provides the power within us to overcome the mind attacks of the enemy trying to invade our thoughts. One way is to write down your prayers in a prayer and praise journal. Writing keeps your mind engaged in actively recording your prayers. You can put a line down the middle of the page with dated prayer requests on one side, and praises and answers to those prayers on the other side. Periodically, review your requests and note on the praise side how and when the Lord answered. This is an encouragement to keep praying because sometimes we forget we even prayed about things or, unfortunately, we forget to thank God and give Him the glory for His answers.
Another way to keep your mind from wandering is to say your prayers aloud. Literally, have a conversation with God that doesn't become one-sided. Stop at times and listen to what He might be saying back to you.
Romans 8:5-6: Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
3. Interruptions: If children in the house or other family members need your attention while you're praying, it can be frustrating. Susanna Wesley was the mother of 19 children, ten of which lived beyond infancy including future Methodist pastors John and Charles Wesley. The story goes that when she was young, she promised the Lord she would match any hours spent in entertainment with hours of prayer. But with such a large family to manage, there was no time for entertainment so she then promised God to devote two hours to prayer daily. Susanna trained her children that when she sat in a chair with the Bible in her lap and put her apron up over her head, mommy was praying so don't interrupt until she's done.
Helping family learn to respect and honor your prayer time is a fabulous way to demonstrate the sacredness of prayer. You can also encourage family members to pray with you, teaching children or grandchildren the value of praying at an early age.
Proverbs 22:6: Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
4. Chaos and Noise: This sneaky way might be a hard one to overcome because it involves the first of Satan's sly ways: distractions. Find a quiet place to pray. Some people refer to this as their prayer closet. For others, it means rising before the rest of the family or waiting until after they've all gone to bed to pray. The key is to have a quiet place for you and the Lord to meet each day. Even "Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:16).
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
5. Doubt: Doubt is the antithesis of faith and is a favorite tool of Satan. Starting in the Garden of Eden, when the serpent asked Eve that famous question that caused her to doubt God's goodness, "Did God really say?" (Genesis 3:1), Satan has used doubt to come between God and His people ever since. But a powerful truth is that if we grow our faith, our doubts will wither.
When it comes to our prayers, Satan will twist some truths to plant doubts in our minds, but God's Word always counters Satan's lies. When Satan questions: How do you know God's listening or will answer?
1 John 5:14-15: Now this is the confidence that we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that he hears us -- whatever we ask -- we know that we have what we asked of him.
Romans 8:26: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
6. Guilt: A favorite ploy of Satan is to fill our hearts and minds with guilt over our past sins, decisions or maybe even current events in our lives. As Christians, we know God doesn't use past guilt to motivate us. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, ask for forgiveness and repent from our sins, God wipes our sin-slate clean (1 John 1:9, Isaiah 1:18). But Satan likes to remind us how bad we once were. Prayer is the perfect weapon to cast both Satan and the guilt out of our minds and hearts, especially when he whispers in our ears some of these taunts.
Romans 3:23-24 It's true there is no one righteous or worthy, but praise God, there is grace. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. (NLT)
If we've sinned recently, we confess our sins to God in prayer: 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Like Nehemiah, we pray earnestly: Nehemiah 1:11 "O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you." (NLT)
7. Exhaustion or Laziness: There's a difference between exhaustion and laziness. Sometimes we fall asleep while praying because we're tired. God understands our need for rest and refreshment. If this happens often, it could be Satan trying to block your prayers, so don't pray lying down and start earlier in the evening or as soon as you wake up in the morning. Laziness and a nonchalant attitude about praying is definitely a work of the enemy to keep you from using one of the most powerful weapons Christians have against Satan: prayer. God says the gate into heaven is narrow. Few understand the significance of that statement. He also says that the weeds of the world will overtake the gospel seed planted in some hearts. Don't let that be you! You want to have hearts of flourishing gospel seed. Prayer is like water and fertilizer to the maturing of your faith.
Prayer Time
Start your prayer time with a prayer something like this: In Your Name, Lord Jesus, I claim protection against any distractions, thoughts or emotions, interruptions, chaos or noise, doubt, guilt, laziness or exhaustion inserted in my life by Satan. I seal off any opportunity for them to influence or affect any part of me or my prayer time. I declare myself spirit, mind, emotions, body and will, totally open to your voice and totally available to do your will alone.
Kylie Jean Tannehill reminds us, "The devil isn't creative; he's just strategic. You don't have to fall for his tactics; they're old as time. We already have the game plan for the tactics of the enemy; it's time to recognize the authority we carry in Jesus!"
Psalm 20:5 May we shout for joy when we hear of your victory and raise a victory banner in the name of our God. May the Lord answer all your prayers. (NLT)
Have a blessed weekend... take time to pray.
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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week's column comes from Rev. Don Grant of Hillview Wesleyan Church, Flemington.