Prayer Warrior

“Children‘s children are the crown of old men…” (Proverbs 17:6)

Lozanne and I have eight grandchildren. The youngest is two and the eldest is eleven. To state that we are proud of each and every one of them is indeed an understatement. When you are freed from the responsibility of raising children’s children, there is a special bond that grows. In a way, grandparents and their grandchildren understand each other in a way that transcends the generation gap.

This morning I am thrilled to introduce a guest writer. Jacob is our oldest grandson who sent me a very special short essay the other day. The following is some of what he had to say and is published with his permission.

I have learned that most people use Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.) as an excuse to just pray about the problem and not do anything about it. They just say “God will handle it. I mean, I did what I could.” But the reality is that’s not real prayer. There are a few easy steps to become a prayer warrior.

1. Praise God for everything he has done for you. He has blessed you with an awful lot, and we take him for granted, assuming He will give us what we want but don’t have. The reality is He can’t help you if you only pray about it once or twice. He wants to hear about your life and your problems.

2. Thank God for the problem you’re facing. It might sound crazy, but thank Him for it anyways. Tell Him how it hurt, thank Him for it and thank Him for giving you that problem. That problem will make you a stronger person in reality. It might hurt a lot, but it will make you stronger and you will feel good about yourself.

3. Ask for God’s will about what to do next. Instead of just asking for support and help, ask Him what to do. He knows what’s best for you and me. He wants to help you, and it is all a part of God’s big plan.

4. Pray for the strength to do God’s will. The truth is we can’t do anything on our own. God’s will might be for you to go to China, or to tell your close friend to stop picking on the younger grades. It’s not easy, but He will help you along the way, if you pray about it.

5. Thank Him for winning the war on the cross. He has won the war already, and it’s because of that that you can talk to Him.

6. Don’t let Satan make you feel guilty for doing God’s will. That’s his tool that works. If you’ve prayed about your problem and have done God’s will, Satan (the devil) will be really mad because you’ve done good. Just ignore it and know you’ve done something really huge. It might have felt really small, but it is actually huge.

These are lessons that took me a while to learn. Just know this, God loves you more than your mom or dad. He created you. And before he was creating the world he was thinking, “Wow. David Delonski is going to do something really big.” He was thinking how much he loves you, even though you haven’t even been created yet. He chose to think about you. God loves you a lot, and He wants to be with you in heaven for the rest of eternity. It’s a free gift. No charge whatsoever. Just ask Him to come into your life. It’s free, and He wants you in heaven. You can’t get into heaven without asking Him into your heart. When He died on the cross, He put all of man’s sins on that cross. He made it possible for us sinners to get to heaven. It doesn’t matter if you told your mom you didn’t take the last slice of pie, when you did or if you killed a man and terrorized a town. He doesn’t care. A sin is a sin. Even if that town doesn’t forgive you when you tortured it, if you ask God for forgiveness, He can forgive you. There isn’t a limit of chances. It’s not like baseball, 3 strikes you’re out. No, he wants you in heaven. He forgives you.

All in all, you can’t do anything without God. He loves you and wants to spend forever with you in heaven.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)