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The Whole Armor of God
The Whole Armor of God
Many years ago, as a young preacher I sat in a class taught by Homer Hailey. As he covered the last chapter of Ephesians, he of course walked us through each part of the armor passage (Eph. 6:12-17). When he came to verses 18 and 19, he included them as part of such armor: “ With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,…” (Eph. 6:18-19). He commented that communication with one’s commander is an essential part of successful service of the soldier.
Later, Peter Wilson taught a series of lessons on prayer, and commented at the beginning that he had discovered that continual, persistent, fervent prayer was one of the most difficult instructions to obey. Not because of desire or lack of it, but just that we tend to not be very good at it. I can’t go through his whole 7 lessons and the multiple suggestions he made concerning growing in prayer, but here are a few of points he made.
1) Set aside an appointed time – make time and take time – schedule it!
2) Study the prayers recorded in the Bible.
3) Study your hymn book – there are many great prayers that are hymns that we sing.
4) Make a list of things and people to pray for and about.
5) Make your knee-jerk reaction to situations and events to be prayer.
Growing as a disciple is to grow in prayer.
Hugh DeLong
