Age of Prayer
6 min read
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”
Revelation 12:10-12
These verses describe the age that we are in. The “salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Messiah” has come in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified and resurrected. And those who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord triumph over the devil “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony”—that is, through faith in the testimony of the Apostles, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The heavens can rejoice because the devil has been hurled down from heaven and because the final stage of God’s great plan of salvation in Christ Jesus is at hand.
On the other hand, the earth and seas cannot rejoice, because the devil is among us, and he is angry because he knows that his time is short. And his agenda is to wreak havoc upon the people of God, the church, simply out of spite.
But Christians need not fear. We have at our disposal the full armor of God. And the devil has no advantage or leverage over us when we are equipped with the full armor of God.
The full armor of God includes truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God. And the full armor of God gets engaged through prayer. (Ephesians 6:10-20).
This morning, I prayed to God for a good round of golf! I prayed, “I will bear witness to You by wearing my ‘Jesus Saves’ shirt, so would you give me a good round of golf!” I shot an 87. It was my best round of golf in over thirty years. And that, after I had shot one of my worst rounds last week.
But something else happened last week at my meeting with KBEMF directors. One evening, my foot got injured for no apparent reason. It really hurt, and I was wondering if I could play the next day. So I repented of my sins and prayed to God to heal my foot so that I could play the next day. When I went to bed that evening, my foot was still hurting. In the morning, my foot felt much better, but it wasn’t 100%. When we teed off, my foot was 100%.
Is God always going to answer prayers like that for me? Who knows. But I’m certain that He answered my prayers on these two occasions, because I live to glorify God and not golf.
Father, Thank You for always hearing my prayers. Thank You for answering my prayers, even for something as trivial as my golf game. Thank You more for forgiving my sins by the blood of the Lamb. May my life bear witness to Your glory and Your love in all things. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
