How urgently do you feel the need to pray?

I came across a quote recently that stopped me in my tracks. I recognized too much of me in the truth of what was written. I wonder if you might see yourself in these words as well.

John Piper wrote this, some 25 years ago.

"The problem is that most Christians don't really believe that life is war and that our invisible enemy is awesome. How are you ever going to get them to pray? They'll say they believe these truths, but watch their lives. There is a peacetime casualness in the church about spiritual things...all is well in America, the Disneyland of the universe."

He was not saying that America is just a Disneyland. He is saying that we've been so lulled into a life of leisure and entertained into a bliss that we do not see behind the façade to what is really happening in life.

What is really happening?

10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.11 Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 

What is really happening, is that we are locked in a spiritual war. There is an eternal conflict raging. There are lives in the balance. There is a cause worth dying for.

But all the while, Christians are more concerned about collecting earthly things than fueling a spiritual conflict. (Don't think so? Just look at how you use your earthly resources. My Dad tells me that when he was a teenager growing up in the years of World War II that people gave up their possessions to fund and fuel the war that raged).

As believers we can become confused and think that our conflict is with each other. We whine and rage about various nuances of theology, and even argue over who has the most truth, what worship can/should look like, or debate the role of men and women in ministry. (What would happen in an army if the soldiers turned on one another with distrust and bickered among one another instead of turning on the enemy?)

If you honestly believe you are at war, you would be eager to hear from your commanding officer to tell you the next stage in the battle. Communication is an absolutely vital component of conflict. (But far too often, we stop reading the bible, we stop praying, we take worship to be more of an entertainment choice, rather than an urgent necessity to hear from above. Listen, I've never been in war, but I know this-if you cut off communication-the battle is nearly won. The sad thing for us is that the adversary doesn't even have to do anything to cut us off-we do it to ourselves.)

So I ask you again, in light of what you have read over the past two weeks in the "farsighted" look at Christians around the world; in light of what you have heard taught recently about God's good plan for the vital importance of the marriage relationship; in light of where you find yourself today------just how urgently do you feel the need to pray?

Maybe it's time to stoke the fire once again. Won't you pray for our church? Won't you pray for your church leaders? Won't you pray for your family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors who are lost? Won't you pray that God would help you see behind the façade of life to the struggle that is real?