Prayer Warriors or Prayer Wimps?

I have a problem. I can’t find the word “wimp” in a dictionary or thesaurus. My dictionary is a bit old. So perhaps that is the problem. We have come to understand a wimp as someone who is weak and whiny. A wimp is the opposite of strong and resolute. It is the kind of person who gives up easily. What is a warrior? That is easier. The dictionary says “a fighting man; soldier.” Why bring all this up? When I was a young Christian I remember certain believers being referred to as “prayer warriors.” My first thought was that they spent a lot of time in prayer. But for some reason the prayer warriors were usually older women. I assumed they had more time than anyone else to pray often and for extended times. Time, observation, knowledge of the Scriptures, experience, and maturity have given me a much better grasp of the concept of a prayer warrior. Allow me.

Apparently the disciples of Jesus thought of themselves as wimps when it came to prayer. They had observed Jesus praying and asked Him to teach them to pray. The instruction that Jesus gave has provided us with a model for praying. We know it as the Lord’s Prayer. But it is more accurate to see it as a pathway of thought that is to guide the Christian in his praying. For our immediate purposes we will focus on the opening petitions. At the very outset we are to go to God as our Father with the desire that His glory be exalted. God’s reputation is to be our primary concern in all our praying. Prayer is not some placebo designed to make us feel better. Neither is it a means of fixing everything that is wrong with us and the world. God-seeking prayer is centered upon God. Our first concern in prayer should be the display of God’s holy magnificence. We must want God to be seen for all that He is in our own lives and in the lives of others. It should be emblazoned upon our minds that true prayer is primarily concerned with God’s global purposes. Do we long for the world to come to know God for all that He is? He is love, just, all-powerful, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.

Our prayers should express the desire for people everywhere to bow in submission to God’s rule (“Thy kingdom come”). God’s universal kingdom is already a reality. So that is not what we ask for. This aspect of God’s rule has always existed (Psa. 10:16 “The Lord is King forever and ever”). It is the kingdom over which the Messiah will rule on this earth that is to be the object of our petition. It will come when Christ returns to earth (Rev. 11:15; Rev. 22:20). So we are actually praying for Christ to come the second time. Every time we worship at the communion table we are anticipating the coming kingdom (“Truly I say to you, I shall never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God,” Mk. 14:25). Tied closely with the plea for the coming of Christ’s kingdom is the petition for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are to want God’s moral will to be done on this earth. It is the will of God that He be worshiped by blood-bought people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Matt. 28:18-20; Rev. 5:9). When Christ rules on this planet evil will be routed and put to flight. Until then our own wills should be submitted to God. It is to be as Amy Carmichael wrote, “And shall I pray to change Thy will, my Father, until it accord to mine? But no, Lord, no; that shall never be. Rather I pray Thee blend my human will with Thine.” It is the will of God that His blood-bought worshipers delight in, think about, study, pursue, and obey His will (Psa. 40:8; Rom. 12:1-2).

Is this where you are in your praying? If it is God’s will that His blood-bought elect go to the ends of the earth to call His other sheep to Jesus Christ (Jn. 10:16), then we must be praying for the lost. The only way into the coming kingdom is through faith in Christ. Are you praying evangelistically? God has ordained prayer as the means of drawing His sheep to Himself (Rom. 10:1). Do you know the names of the people on your street? Are you praying for their salvation? Are you praying for the members of your family, including cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles? And we must not forget those people who appear in the daily news who are going through great sorrows and difficulties. We must be casting the prayer-net as far as we can. Perhaps it will help to think of it this way. Let’s enter into some personal resolutions. I resolve that I will pray that the eyes of my own heart may be enlightened to see the world as ready for the harvest but waiting for harvesters (Jn. 4:35). I resolve to pray for my church family and its involvement in the Great Commission of Christ. I resolve that I will pray for the persecuted church every week, if not every day. If we commit ourselves to this kind of consistent praying we will have a fight on our hands. My physical body will resist. My schedule will conspire against me. The world will sneer at me. And we certainly won’t escape Satan’s anti-prayer fire power (Eph. 6:16). But will you stand with me and declare that by God’s grace we will be prayer warriors and not prayer wimps?

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church