In the 8th grade, I was the same height I am now. I was one of the toughest kids in school and even the 9th graders didn’t mess with me much. My teachers always said, “be a lover, not a fighter!” I just responded, “I’m both”.
Well, one day toward the end of the year I learned a lesson about picking fights that I have never forgotten. Leonard was a year older than me. He was not much bigger than I was and kinda quiet, but one day he made a remark I didn’t like much. Don’t remember what it was, but probably a comeback to some cocky thing I said. Anyway, I decided that after school he needed to learn to just keep quiet. I followed him out of the building and tried to pick a fight. He just kept walking. So, I resorted to a little shoving and taunting. When we finally got to the end of the grounds, he had had enough so he turned and was ready to fight. By this time, a crowd had gathered and my reputation was on the line. I had on a new shirt, so I took it off to show my chest and muscles. What followed was a completely humbling beating by a kid named “Leonard”. I don’t give up easily, so by the time he had decided I’d taken enough, my back and arms were extremely skinned up and I was a bloody mess.
I learned a lesson to never pick unnecessary fights, because you may regret the fight that comes back.
We should never be surprised by the level of retaliation when we pick fights. As Pastor Mark said, “Prayer is picking a fight with the devil”. Our enemy is fine to leave us alone when we aren’t doing much to mess with his principality. But when we commit ourselves to 40 days of prayer and fasting to bring about God’s will on Earth, we are throwing boulders at the gates of hell and we shouldn’t be surprised that he comes out fighting. He will hit us with discouragement and will attack us in our weaknesses and at the point of our identity. He will get us to doubt ourselves and our God. He will tell us we are asking for the wrong things or with the wrong motives. He doesn’t fight fair. But the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world, but have the power of God behind them to demolish his strongholds ( II Cor 10:4).
We can never forget this: Prayer and God’s Word in our mouths have divine power! (Rev 12:11) Satan likes to use deceit and get us to believe our prayers are having no effect because we are usually too impatient on answers. But, if our prayers have no effect, then why is he bothering to mess with us or trying to discourage us???
The prayers we pray when we feel like quitting are the prayers that bring breakthroughs!
Don’t get sucked in. For some reason God likes to let the odds get built up against us, let us get into a place where it looks like there is no way out. Why? So, we aren’t tempted to share his glory. So when the bottom drops out, your finances and your health are attacked, when you feel like you are alone on the battlefield, Take Courage! That’s when you are in a place where God’s power is revealed and God receives the glory.
Praying Hard is hard because it’s hard!
But like almost everything in life, the things that come easy are rarely appreciated and usually taken for granted. We don’t want those kinds of answers or blessings! We want God-powered God-sized victories.
So Keep Praying. Pray Hard… for as long as it takes and do not be afraid of the circumstances you see. Trust God! Recite His Word. He loves to hear it and Satan can’t stand it! Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world ( I John 4:4) Demolish his strongholds by proclaiming God’s Word and do not grow weary. This battle is not ours but the Lord’s (II Chron 20:15)