You are under attack!  Whether you realize it or not, a battle is raging against you everyday of your life.  There are forces seeking to take you down and take you out.

I am talking about a spiritual battle.  In the invisible spiritual realm, an intense war is always on, and each of us as believers in Jesus Christ are in the theater of battle.  If we are not careful, we can and will become a casualty.

One of the most common spiritual attacks we face targets our prayer life.  The devil and his forces do everything they possibly can to keep us from praying. His tactics include:

• Guilt, shame and condemnation over our sins and failures.

• Busyness.

• Distractions.

• Doubts.

Let’s focus for a moment on this last word — doubt.

The dictionary defines “doubt” as “a feeling of uncertainty about the truth, reality or nature of something.”

Note that doubt is defined as a feeling!  The devil loves to take us down with ugly feelings.  It is a part of his strategy against us.  If he can trapped us in the muck and mire of bad feelings, he can take us out of the battle and make us ineffective in our walk with God and service for God.

When it comes to prayer, the devil seeks to saturate us with feelings of doubt.  He invades us with doubts about God’s ability and willingness to listen to us.  He makes us wonder if God really cares about us.  He infiltrates us with the feeling that our prayers never make a difference.  He tries to heap doubts onto our soul so that we will not pray.  His goal is to keep God’s people from praying.

Why does the devil work so hard to keep us from prayer?  Because he knows the difference it makes!  He knows that prayer is a part of our artillery as believers.  It is heavy spiritual artillery.  When we pray we assault the devil’s forces and bind his activities.  The devil  wants to stop our prayers any way he can because of the disruption it brings to his agenda.

Take a look at what the Apostle Paul said about the power of prayer in spiritual battle:

“ … Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.”  —  Romans 12:12 (NLT)

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”  —  Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

Here is a great lesson:

One of the best times to pray is when you don’t feel like praying!

When you doubt that God is listening or that He cares, and when you doubt that your prayers are making a difference — PRAY ANYWAY! Let your doubts prompt you to pray!

Pastor Dale

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