Prayer often feels fraught. Though sometimes glorious, frequently it can seem laborious, usually relegated to morning quiet times or just before we drift off to sleep. Prayer can feel B O R I N G. Occasionally, we send up SOSes throughout the day when we can’t figure out how to get ourselves out of some mess. Praying aloud can produce social anxiety in short order. Tragically, all of this describes much of my prayer life for many years, until I learned that prayer is a weapon that completes my obedience!

When we pray, we are wielding divine power. Really! Consider: in prayer, you are talking to the One who actually can do anything about your concerns. You are pushing aside the flaming darts of the evil one (anxiety, unbelief, accusation, shame, and the like) and you are taking those thoughts captive to obey Christ through prayer. Prayer destroys strongholds like self- centeredness, insisting on your own way, and eschewing godly counsel. When you pray the Word, you obtain the knowledge of God. Stop and re-read the previous sentence—the knowledge of GOD!

Satan woos us away from prayer. He tells us to ruminate on that hard conversation, replaying it til we sink into despair. He bids us to check Twitter or TikTok (Tick-tock goes your life, you look up and you’re on your deathbed!) or that steamy video. The Evil One knows that prayer destroys arguments and lofty opinions, so he seeks to turn your attention to those very things: the newest outrage in our culture, the hip new philosophy espoused on a TedTalk, or even the ill-considered opinions of your friends.

Waging war through prayer, we actually grow in obedience. To ignore God is disobedience. These are hard words I type, but they are typed with love, and so I say it again: to ignore God is disobey to the One Who chose to create you. He didn’t have to—He could have thought about it and said, “Never mind. We don’t need Jane.” But he didn’t. He made you because He loves you. And because He loves you, He wants to talk with you. And when He talks with you, and you talk with Him, divine power is unleashed that will—in His perfect timing and for your perfection— destroy those strongholds that you try to hide from others and from Him.

So, dear younger sisters whom I am praying for even as I write this, I urge you to destroy arguments (“I just want to check my texts.”) and lofty opinions (“I want to talk to Lindy about this and see what she says.”) raised against prayer, and to take every thought captive to obey Christ and P R A Y. Your Creator is waiting . . . for you!