War Room

Life happens.  That’s generally what I say when I’m inconvenienced, or things don’t go my way.  I rarely say that when I’m getting everything that I want and exactly how I want it.  In those moments, I’m blessed and highly favored.  But that’s still just instances of life happening.

As long as I’m alive, and as long as you’re alive, life will happen.  Unfortunately, I have neglected one of the key elements of being prepared to deal with life-the good AND the bad.  I’m not setting aside a specific time, or place, to pray.

I think, for many Christians, we deem our drive-by prayers to be sufficient.  After all, we still have clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads, our kids act alright.  We have food in our bellies (let’s face it most of us have an abundance of food).  We have jobs (we may not like them, but they are keeping us).  And we have entertainment to distract us from any issues.  Cell phones, Hulu, Netflix, gaming systems, concerts…you get the picture.

But that’s not sufficient.  God is dealing with me.  He’s pressing me.  He wants more.  He wants ALL of me.  Just looking at my life…the way I handle issues…the way I avoid intimacy with Him…you can tell that’s a big ask.

When I watched the movie “War Room,” I was pumped.  Baby, I decreed and declared that when I got a house, I would have a war room.  A war room is a space dedicated to prayer.  A place to meditate on God’s word.  A place to make requests known to Him.  But I think, more importantly, a war room is a place to have intimate connection with God. 

I sing the song “Make Room” by Jonathan McReynolds constantly, but I’m slacking on actually making room for God to get to me every day.  I have come a long way, but He wants so much more out of me.  I’m sure ya’ll get sick of me saying it because I get sick of repeating myself, but God is convicting me.

So, I placed a dry erase board in my closet to become more intentional about my connection to God.  I wrote names on the board of people that I felt led to pray for.  I moseyed on into the closet every morning for about three days and had focused time with God.  That was a couple of months ago.  Don’t get me wrong. I have frequent quick bursts of prayer to God throughout my day.  But special dedicated time?  Nah.

While God’s grace is sufficient, my lack of a consistent prayer life is hurting me.  Relationships are so much more meaningful when you have consistent communication.  You know someone loves you when they make time talk to you every day.  When they are intentional about maintaining open lines of communication.  When you’re not an afterthought.  When they don’t only call you when “life happens,” and they feel burdened.

By the time this post comes out, I should be in the mountains of Utah.  My prayer is that I am intentional about sitting still every day and talking to God.  Pouring my heart out to Him.  But that I’m also equally as intentional about listening to His responses to me.  To hearing His voice.  To just being in real fellowship with Him.

When we spend time in our war rooms, we are ready for life.  Because life happens.  And we need to have on the full armor of God.  #wepreach