“Prayer, at its most basic level, was surrender. Like Jesus in the garden, saying, “Not My will, but Yours, be done.” The ironic thing was, when a person surrendered their will, they got God’s, and then they received what they were really looking for all along. This was what she believed.”
― Chris Fabry, War Room: Prayer Is a Powerful Weapon
Last night I rented The War Room. My aunt said it was one of her favorite movies and she always watches it when she needed to be lifted up. And, like always, she was right. As I watched the movie, I could almost feel the message of prayer sink into my heart, its powerful light illuminating all the dark corners of my soul. I don’t like to look into those shadows because they are filled with cobweb memories of hurt, anger, pride, fear, neglect, shame. The list could go on and on. After all I’ve had 50 years of collecting and stuffing all of life’s negativity into the darkest corners. I’ve become an expert at stuffing the hurt and ugliness of life into boxes, locking them up tightly, then shutting them away in those dark places in my heart.
But here’s the deal. I don’t think I have room for another 50, or even 10, years to store boxes of grief. Because that’s exactly what each box contains when you get right down to it – grief.
“Wrap your heart around that the next time you go through a struggle,” Clara said. “The goal of prayer is not to change God’s mind about what you want. The goal of prayer is to change your own heart, to want what He wants, to the glory of God.”
― Chris Fabry, War Room: Prayer Is a Powerful Weapon
Prayer is a powerful weapon.
Prayer is a powerful healing balm.
I went to bed thinking about prayer. I thought about it’s influence on my own life. I imagined if we all had a war room how different this world might be. But to be fair, a war room isn’t necessary – maybe a nice-to-have but definitely not a must. Prayer doesn’t need a room or an alter. It doesn’t have to fancy or wrapped up in fancy language. The Spirit hears the simplest prayers and those heartfelt, simple prayers in times of need tend to be the most powerful.
Cheers!
💕
