I Asked For Prayer…and…

Celeste Blue Angel speaking: Now that you’ve asked for prayer, it’s perfect sailing. The bad weather has cleared and you have made your way up to the bow and are sitting right where the sleek bow curve cuts into the blue warm waters. There are a few dolphins leaping in and out of the bow waves, and you close your eyes as the balmy sea breeze blows through your hair…You’re cruising.

Suddenly, and quite rudely, you feel a slap on the back of your head…ouch! You are brought quickly back to reality…There is no sleek yacht, not one breath of warm, balmy, mid-summer Mediterranean sea breeze blowing off the starboard bow, and all the dolphins have suddenly vanished beneath the waves. You look up and reality crashes in on you. Okay, let’s start the story again. Now that you’ve asked for prayer, you’ve managed to send the enemy into a rage. He’s more determined than ever to erase you, and his first stab is to hit you even harder that he was before; he sees that his hitting you only made you more determined to fight. So this time he’s going to make sure you don’t get up. He comes in and hits you with the very thing you asked prayer for, because he believes –as it has often proven successful– that if he can bring to you the exact same battle you’ve asked for prayer to help fight, then you will surely crumble in discouragement, and turn against your Commander or toss those weapons to one side as useless and lose it altogether. So he doubles the gunpowder and aims it right for the heart…wham! Do you see where your daydreams got you? You are not on a vacation yacht; you are on your back in the dirt, and worse still it would seem… you are right back where you began before you asked for prayer. But let me tell you something to clear your mind. Yes, you are in the dirt, but you are not right back where you started. All that has happened is that Jesus allowed the enemy to get a punch in to wake you up from your silver-platter dream. The victory is not going to be handed to you; you are not going to be spoon-fed off of a silver platter. Now get back on your feet and grab those weapons, because that is what the enemy is afraid of, not you, but those weapons, but only if you use them properly. Instead of getting all in a rage at those around you, blaming them for the slap on the back of the head, get riled up at the enemy and give it to him in the guts. It wasn’t your warrior buddies that hit you. They simply pointed out that you zigged instead of zagged. Old habits and sins are so hard to break. They are like camouflaged pit traps along a well-travelled path. You know exactly where they are, but you still keep falling into them; and yes that is very discouraging. It is depressing and it just makes you want to give up… Ahaaa, there you have it…give up, give up, give up… He’s planted the seed in your mind; now swallow it. Come on, swallow the lie and defeat is at your doorstep.

Let’s start that line over again. You see the dirty salesman coming down the street, stopping at an occasional house. He enters each front gate walks purposefully to the front door and gives it an almost musically crisp rap-a-tap-tap. The door opens and he disappears into the house for some time; longer or shorter depending on whether the customer is a new one or old one. Now he’s back on the street heading right for your front gate. You are standing at the door. He sees you and smiles that all-knowing, greasy-snake-oil smile of his. If he’s feeling extra cheeky, he’ll give you one of those coy smiles that pimps give to those in-the-know customers. You, on the other hand, don’t smile; you hold your gaze as you reach for that blue-enhanced, double-barreled, snake-oil-salesmen blaster. You wait as you steady your gaze and as soon as he touches the front-gate latch you blast the SOB to kingdom come… That’s how it’s done.