Battleground

Tonight I went with a group from Chi Alpha and did a prayer walk around campus in a huge loop, claiming those places and people for Him, breaking strongholds, speaking life over it all. I was convicted. I haven't prayed as much for my school as I'd like to. I've been there almost every weekday for 3 and half years, and I walk everywhere, but I can't say I'm active in praying as I walk. That needs to change. I want His heart for that place. I want to see it as He does, to see the people as He does, to love them like He does...

My Chi Alpha pastor read some scripture before we went out. One part he read was in Ephesians 6, about how we don't wrestle against people, but our fight is with "rulers, authorities, spiritual forces of evil". It goes on to talk about the armor of God, and I realized that because I've heard it a lot, I've let that passage become trite/stale for me. I'll tune it out because I think I know it or, "I've already heard that, don't need to really ponder it, I get it." How prideful and foolish is that attitude? I love it when God takes something you've heard a million times and shows it to you in a new way. As my pastor read it, I just started thinking about it: "What does this really mean, and what does this look like lived out in my life?"

The belt of truth...what is that? Am I letting everything I see and hear go through a filter of truth? Am I testing those things to see if they line up with the Word? What lies have I been believing? Breastplate of righteousness....it's incredible how choosing purity, choosing right over wrong and to walk in God's ways protects your heart as well as affects other people in your interactions with them, for "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). I'm not sure about the shoes one, "having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace". Maybe it means being ready to take the gospel anywhere, into your workplace or classroom, into your group of friends, or being willing to leave your comfort zone for the sake of sharing this life-altering news. The shield of faith is crucial; many things come to sabotage our trust in the Lord and the knowledge that he is good, that he is sovereign. Fiery darts... lies about God's character and heart toward us, other oppression, etc. Along with that, the helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit (word of God) are to be taken up in all circumstances, as well as prayer and supplication. In all circumstances.

Take one look at the world and it's clear there's a battle going on, a battle for hearts. And if you claim to belong to Christ, I'd dare to say you're even more of a target. And really, what idiot walks onto a battlefield without a weapon? (Even David had a sling and some rocks. But more importantly...he believed that God was with him and greater than his enemy.)

In school I'm required to read a lot, and I get used to skimming and internalizing the main points, making quick notes in the margins. But with scripture it should be different. The Word and prayer are two of our greatest weapons. My Bible could be marked up in every color of highlighter or scribbled all over in pen, but if I haven't allowed God to mark me up with His words, to scribble all over me, to underline the things in me that need transformation, to change me in such a way that I actually think about and then live out what I'm reading, then I might as well have left the book on the shelf.

We are spoken for, covered, claimed. How would our prayers change if we really believed that God answers them? Let's take back what's His and what's ours because of Him. And let's be open to hearing and responding to His timeless truth.