I am preparing this week to attend the Declare Conference in Dallas again this year. In the summer, the leaders offered an opportunity for us to submit a devotion on what it means to be a warrior.

There was a word limit (oh mercy…help me!) and a time limit that hedged me in because the whole thing was happening as we were getting ready to leave for Cuba.

With work and packing and watching the grands one day, I did a lot of pondering and praying and then tapped it out and many thanks to my dear friend Cindie who edited for me on her phone so I could submit before we left.

I know the suspense is just too much, so it was accepted. I am honored. And here it is for you all to read today. Hope it blesses you in your battles:

A Prayer Warrior like Nehemiah <3

I remember the moment the hope was birthed in my mind that one such as I could be called, one day, a Warrior. 

I…

who avoid conflict at all costs…

who in my younger walk was more prone to compromise in order to maintain a semblance of peace…

could don battle gear and wage war for what mattered most to me. 

On a shelf in a Christian book store, I found a poem depicting someone who, on an eternal “here’s your life” screen, watched the events of his earthly days and noticed that at the greatest points of decision there had been a faceless and fierce warrior who had fended off evil on his behalf. 

Asking who this brave one had been, he was told it was his own mother and her prayers. 

The idea that a mother could wage war in the heavenly realms on behalf of her family was a new concept to me and I began to gather books on the subject of prayer and spiritual warfare. 

But in the pages of the Old Testament I found the model for everyday, ordinary, show-up-and-do-the-thing warfare. 

In Nehemiah I found the model for my daily strategy for prayer warfare. 

Nehemiah was serving the pagan King of Persia when he received word of the broken down walls of Jerusalem. With a heavy heart he sought the Lord. 

Prayer by prayer, he received blessing and provision as he was sent back to God’s Holy City on a mission of restoration. 

Nehemiah faced many challenges from those working against God’s best plan for His people. 

It is this same enemy who would keep me feeling weak and ineffective as I war in prayer for our family. 

He uses the same tactics on me as he did Nehemiah. 

Discouragement…

Sanballat was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and moved the Jews, saying in front of his friends and the Samaritan officers, “What does this bund of poor, feeble Jews think they are doing? Do they think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap – and charred ones at that? Tobiah the Ammonite, who was standing beside him said, “That stone wall would collapse even if a fox walked along the top of it.”  Nehemiah 4:2-3  NLT

I hear my enemy hiss…

What are you trying to do? The tide of culture is greater than your efforts to raise your children to follow Jesus. The damage is too great. Your efforts are too small. You are trying to build out of wishful thinking and it will not stand. 

Fear….

Four times they sent the same message, and each time I gave the same reply. The fifth time, Sanballat’s servant came with an open letter in his hand, and this is what it said, “There is a rumor among the surrounding nations, and Geshem tells me it is true, that you and the Jews are planning to revel and that is why you are building the wall. According to his reports, you plan to be their king. He also reports that you have appointed prophets to problem about you, ‘Look! There is a king in Judah!’ You can be very sure that this report will get back to the king, so I suggest you come and talk it over with me.” Nehemiah 6:4-7  NLT

 The enemy delights to throw more on me than I can handle and then remind me of a history of past failures. 

Betrayal…

Later I went to visit Shemaiah son of Delaiah and grandson of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home. He said, “Let us meet together inside the Temple of God and bolt the doors shut. Your enemies are coming to kill you tonight.:

But I replied, “Should someone in my position run from danger? Should someone in my position enter the Temple to save my life? No, I won’t do it!”

I realized that God had not spoken to him, but that he had uttered this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. The were hoping to intimidate me and make me sin. Then they would be able to accuse and discredit me. Nehemiah 6:10-13 NLT

 I can be thrown into confusion when the ones who should be supporting me attempt to convince me that God has abandoned the effort. 

Just as I was able to recognize the elements of the enemy’s attacks on my prayers for our children, I could look to the same passages in Nehemiah to see God’s battle plan to press on. 

I see a posture humility as he fasted and prayed. 

I see courage to stand against forces working against God’s plan for the people He loved. 

I find the seeds of a warrior’s prayer in Nehemiah 4:14.

I base my prayer on the words of Nehemiah and I battle on my knees.

Oh God, I will not be afraid. I will remember Your great and awesome power. I will press on. Equip me to fight for my family each day, knowing you are for us. Strengthen me when I feel weak and lead me daily into battle. All for Your Name and glory. 

Hello and happy Friday to you, 

I hope you have had a good week and you are enjoying some cooler Fall weather. 

Last night I was driving home from up north. It was time most people are home watching the evening news and preparing from bed. Across the prairie I could see headlights moving in the fields. I assume some farmers were working to get their crops in while the weather is good. I have a farmer friend and I thought of his wife maybe home waiting for him and the long day he had spent in that tractor. 

A plane flew overhead and I thought of the passengers going somewhere or headed home. I have been on those late night flights, trying to catch a little rest as you rub elbows with total strangers and the engine hum keeps you from really resting. On the other end, there would be baggage to collect and transportation to work out and either a hotel room or your own bed to collapse into.

I passed little towns and lanes where people I love live. In some of the homes are some great joys and in others deep sorrows. And in some just a little mixture of both in the midst of the daily normal that is this season in their home.

There were other travelers out with me. Not a lot, but enough I didn’t feel alone. And there was the residual vigilance of watching the sides of the road for a deer that might decide to cross just as I was passing by. I hit one once and it has forever left its imprint on me when I drive through the farmland after dark. 

Thanks to satellite radio I had a steady flow of praise music and so it was inside that little black Toyota Camry I found a sanctuary of grace. 

I lifted prayers and praise for things I know and things I thought about.

Yet again. 

I drive that road a lot. 

Sometimes in stillness and sometimes listening to a sermon and sometimes with music. 

I mull things over and I talk to God and I wonder often…is this really prayer? Am I talking at God or to God? Am I hearing from Him or just working out of my own thoughts? 

Then I pray with the teen prayer team and hear how they talk to God or listen to our daughter pray over her boys as they wiggle in between us after stories when I am helping get them down for the night or I hear the prayers lifted by my own husband while our dinner plates wait. 

And I hear their words, spoken in their own language and their own ways, expressing what is on the heart. Just talking to God for our needs, for the needs of others, for the stuff that is overwhelming us and the things for which we marvel at what He has done, the things we hope will happen and the things we fear that might happen.

Yes. This is prayer. 

Wordless tears and hard questions, many words or few…talking to God. Trusting and believing He is…and He cares…and He will intervene in ways beyond our understanding. Knowing, always, He is faithful. 

Our family has been on the receiving end of prayers answered many times that we know of and oh so many that we were unaware of. We are thankful for the prayers of our friends and our family and it is an honor and privilege to pray for others. 

Prayer is not a burden or an obligation. It is a blessed gift of communication with our Father, who knows the end from the beginning and in all things, works for our good. 

I pray, sincerely and honestly, right now for each of you that you know His comfort and His presence and His love through the power of Holy Spirit today. 

I have been absent from the blog this week as other needs were pressing for my time, but you have been in my thoughts and prayers even as I have been away. I trust God is moving in each of your lives and I hope and pray today that you are able to see His goodness and grace and mercy poured out on you and those you love <3