Warfare Prayer

It cannot be said too often that the life of a Christian is warfare, an intense conflict, a lifelong contest. It is a battle fought against invisible foes who are ever alert and seeking to entrap, deceive, and ruin the souls of men. The Bible calls men to life, not a picnic or holiday. It is no pastime or pleasure jaunt. It entails effort, wrestling, and struggling. It demands putting out the full energy of the spirit in order to frustrate the foe and to come off, at last, more than a conqueror. It is no primrose path, no rose scented flirt tog. From start to finish, it is war. The Christian warrior is compelled from the hour he first draws his sword to “endure hardness like a good soldier.”

What a misconception many people have of the Christian life! How little the average church member appears to know of the character of the conflict and of its demands on him! How ignorant he seems to be of the enemies he must encounter if he is to serve God faithfully, succeed in getting to heaven, and receive the crown of life! He scarcely seems to realize that the world, the flesh, and the devil will oppose his onward march. He hardly realizes that they will defeat him utterly, unless he gives himself to constant vigilance and unceasing prayer.

The Christian soldier wrestles not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places. It is no surprise, therefore, to find Paul, who understood the character of the Christian life so well, carefully and plainly urging Christians to “put on the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11). It is not surprising that Paul, who was so thoroughly informed as to the malignity and number of the foes which the disciple of the Lord must encounter, would urge us to “pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” The present generation would be wise if all professors of our faith could be persuaded to realize this all-important, vital truth, which is absolutely indispensable to a successful Christian life.

It is just at this point in today’s Christianity that one may find its greatest defect. There is little, or nothing, of the soldier element in it. The discipline, self-denial, spirit of hardship, determination, so prominent in and belonging to the military life, are lacking. Yet, the Christian life is warfare, all the way.

Prayer, and more prayer, adds to the fighting qualities and the more certain victories of God’s good, fighting men. The power of prayer is most forceful on the battlefield in the midst of the noise and strife of the conflict. Paul was preeminently a soldier of the cross. For him, life was no flowery bed of ease. And in sight of the end, we hear him chanting his final song of victory, “I have fought a good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7). Reading between the lines, we see that he is more than a conqueror!   ~E.M. Bounds