Spiritual Disciplines: God’s War Radio
By Matt Watson
This is part five of a nine-part series on spiritual disciplines meant to edify the church on disciplining ourselves to fulfill Jesus’ commandment to love one another. Now more than ever, we need to be reminded, challenged, exhorted, and conscious of what we’re doing with our time and how we’re disciplining ourselves according to God and his word.
Colossians 4:2
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
Prayer
Everyone knows they are supposed to pray. Very few of us actually do it regularly. This is because we do not know the point of prayer and we feel weak and ineffectual in it. We do not know how to “continue steadfastly” in it, and instead, we end up getting distracted and thinking about our to-do list rather than on how good God is or the needs of the saints.
In this series, we are discussing how biblical spiritual disciplines help grow us in godliness. They help us see and enjoy God, and from that, we can bless and love others. Likewise, prayer helps us know Jesus and helps others know Jesus. Prayer makes us more like God because it turns our hearts to his heart and our thoughts to his thoughts, which helps us interact with our friends, family, and neighbors in a way that reflects God’s love for the lost.
If we aren’t praying, we aren’t growing. Leonard Ravenhill said, “No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.” Prayer should mark the life of a Christian because through Christ as our High Priest, our prayers have direct access to God. We pray directly to him, worship him, and depend on him. Martin Luther says, “As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and cobblers to make shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.”
Prayer is wonderfully unique because it is both communicating with our commanding general during wartime, as well as talking with our heavenly Father. Our prayers should not treat God as if he were a vending machine ready to dispense comforts and treats. In prayer, we are talking to the creator of the universe, our sovereign king, who is also our Dad who loves us.
There is no set number of prayers to make to qualify for praying “steadfastly.” Rather, praying steadfastly looks like habitual and frequent times of prayer throughout the day. Just as you might call up a parent or grandparent on your drive home from work, so too can you call out to your heavenly Father about your day.
Steadfast in Prayer
Speaking on Colossians 4:2, John Piper says three things make up steadfast prayer. First, we should pray persistently as a soldier on the radio to headquarters checking “again and again for God to give you your bearings and guide you through the minefields of temptation, and make you alert to every opportunity to witness to his promised victory.” The Bible says we wage war “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). In prayer, we use God’s war radio to call in artillery fire against the schemes of the enemy, air support for the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and request the rescue of the lost still captive to the enemy.
Second, we should pray watchfully because, as Piper says, “vigilance must mark spiritual lives every day. Without it, we are sitting ducks for Satan's constant barrage of flaming darts.” If we are not praying, we are not taking up the armor of God, nor applying the sword of the Spirit in aggressive defense, because we aren’t praying for others (Eph 6:17-18).
Third, Piper says we should pray thankfully because we know God has won the war and as our Father, he has our best in mind. We are not just calling to headquarters and requesting fire support, we are talking directly to our Dad. We have a close and direct relationship with him now because of Jesus, who canceled “the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col 2:14). Now, like Jesus, we can pray to God as our Dad, rather than just our King.
How to transform your prayers
There are multiple things you can do right now to improve the persistence, watchfulness, and thankfulness of your prayers. Connecting with the other spiritual disciplines we have discussed, the single most important thing you can do to help your prayer life is meditating on Scripture and praying it back to God.
As you read the Word pause and think about what you have read, and then pray back those truths to God. Find even just one verse in whatever you read and think about it through the day. Write it on an index card and put it in your wallet so you can re-read it whenever you think about it. This meditation and memorization of God’s Word helps us truly retain what we read, and we can then turn it into prayer.
This works for all of the books of our Bible. As you read one of the Gospels, or the prophets, or a historical narrative, think about what is happening and how God is acting in those moments. Rejoice in God’s victories by praying thanks and worship to him. See Jesus deliver and forgive sins, and ask God to do the same for those he has put in your life. Read the failures of Israel and the people of God to truly honor him, and likewise repent. Read Psalms and see them fulfilled by Christ and pray the psalm back to God. In this way, you are hiding the word in your heart that you may not sin (Ps 119:11).
Another way to improve in being steadfast in prayer is to die to sin and approach the Lord with the right posture of humility. The Bible is not shy about letting us know ways our prayers can be hindered. Check your heart; are you holding something against a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or family member? Are you demanding self-vindication, rather than trusting in God for his wise justice? Are you in habitual sin that demonstrates you do not need or submit your life to the Lord? All of these things will keep you from praying well because they come from a place that does not honor God, rather than by praying by his Spirit. Jesus calls us to love our enemies; it is hard to hold a grudge when you are honestly praying to God for their wellbeing and joy in him!
Lastly, although it can be formulaic, do not be afraid to utilize prayer guides and structures like A.C.T.S. This famous acronym stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Adoration can look like praying through Isaiah 40, which focuses on God’s might and character. Next, confess all the ways you have fallen short of God’s will as convicted by the Holy Spirit. Then remember Christ and give thanks for all that God has done for you by his Son, rescuing you from sin and punishment because of Jesus. And lastly, let the Father know about your needs and the needs of others. He is a good Father and will provide for his children.
Additionally, you can build in prayer habits for others. Pray every time you hear a siren or see the lights of an emergency vehicle. Pray every time your phone buzzes with an Amber or Silver alert. Pray on your commute, and right before you walk in the door after a day’s work so that you can be a blessing to your coworkers and customers, as well as to your family. If someone cuts you off in traffic, try to train yourself to pray a blessing over them. The Bible actually teaches us to pray for, to bless and not curse, those who persecute us (Rom 12:14).
There will be times where we do not know what or how to pray. What is there to say at certain tragedies? Thank God he gives us his own Spirit to pray for us in words we don’t even understand. Romans 8:26-27 NIV says, “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. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
Be encouraged that God is faithful in prayer, even when we aren’t. These things are worth fighting for. Endure and continue steadfastly in prayer, and be watchful with thanksgiving.
Additional Resources on Prayer:
Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney
With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray
Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Tim Keller
Prayer by John Bunyan
The Valley of Vision a collection of Puritan prayers and devotionals