A Wartime Walkie-Talkie

Chapter 2 in Piper really hits home for me. Piper tells us that we should look at prayer as a “wartime walkie-talkie” rather than a “domestic intercom”. The problem is that we become so enamored with our comfort that we lose sight of the fact that we are in a spiritual war as we see in Ephesians 6. God uses prayer to carry out His will and we often waste this incredible resource.

I think about my own prayer life. I do make a point of making some “kingdom prayers” regularly. I pray for our country and the direction it is going. I pray for my church and the ministry with which I work. I pray that my family and coworkers would come to a saving faith in Christ. I also pray for the missionaries that we have the privilege of supporting.

However, do I demonstrate a true zeal for these prayers? Do I really understand just how difficult it is to pack up your life and move to New Zealand as a woman we support has done? God is using her ministry to do some powerful work with college students in New Zealand. These are eventual leaders who will hopefully take the gospel to the countries in the Pacific Rim. Am I really passionate for the work she does? Similarly, we sponsor the young man who is now the director for Campus Crusade at USC. Right now he is leading a short-term missions team in Japan. Sure, I give lip-service to praying for him daily, but is it commensurate with the importance of reaching the lost people he and his team meet? I find that it is much easier to sign checks than it is to wrestle with God in prayer over the work that these people do.

These thought papers have forced me to take some hard looks at how I'm living my life. I keep a very tight schedule between family, work, school, and ministry. I try not to waste time on frivolities, but of course I have distractions. Some of these distractions may even be good since God does mandate some rest. While most of what I do is good and kingdom-focused I also need to make sure that my time is spent in such a way that I maximize it for the kingdom. It would be great to see my family and friends come to a saving faith in Christ. It is good that I pray regularly for that. However, I also need to keep a much larger focus and have a zeal for that larger focus. Remembering the seriousness of the spiritual war we fight is a vital part of maintaining that zeal.