“Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication” Eph. 6:18
“She is such a strong woman”. “She fights for justice”. “She is Fierce”. There is an invisible pressure on women in our culture to be warriors. Throughout history, using military language to describe a person has been strictly masculine. The feminist movement has stolen these terms and applied them to women as well. But Christian women don’t need to “break down barriers of gender” by using war terms because we’ve been warriors since God called us to put on His armor and fight for him.
Ephesians 6:10-18 is not specifically for men. It is for ALL believers & always has been! Unlike feminists, we do not battle against the patriarchy, but we fight a spiritual battle for the Lord. We do not depend on our own strength, but humbly yield to Christ that He might work through us in His strength. We do not seek independence, but dependence on God. We do not prize self love for satisfaction, but love of God and others.
This passage describes what the warrior dons and how each piece of armor functions, but once we are armed, how do we battle? We use the Word and prayer.
I challenge you this very day to take up God’s armor and start fighting! Awesome! You might hear the battle cry in your mind right now and then stop… but how? How do we start?
It seems easier to set aside specific time each day to spend reading than it does to spend intentional time in prayer. We might send little mental text messages to God throughout the day, but do we schedule a time to talk with him? It’s also easier to hold one another accountable to read the Bible than to pray. How could we hold one another accountable with something so personal and intimate? We must remember that we are in an army, not a lone ranger. We are part of a cohort, not an outside mercenary for hire. We have a family to fight alongside. We have fellow brothers and sisters in arms: the church.
We might send little mental text messages to God throughout the day, but do we schedule a time to talk with him?
I challenge you to join our group of Prayer Warriors. Each month we will be journeying through a specific theme of prayer such as Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication, etc. There will be a new blog post on the first Sunday of each month exploring the theme of the month. Each week, there will also be a blog post with a prayer METHOD (journaling, post-it notes, prayer closet, etc.), a RESOURCE to dive deeper (article, book, video, etc.), a VERSE from Scripture, and a texting CHALLENGE. Try to find at least one other person to join you each week for the texting challenge. Each month, I’ll be asking the college and career aged women in my church to join me for the whole month.
Having a thriving prayer life is not only possible, it is paramount. We are at war whether we see it or not. So join us in following God’s command in 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “pray without ceasing”.
“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” – Ephesians 6:13
Perpetual Felicities 