Prayer is a weapon . Many would say it is the most important part of the arsenal of a believer. Prayer is also the least used weapon , or perhaps the best way to put it is to say, it is the most ineffective weapon used by the Christian. It is no secret that most Christians struggle with prayer, wondering whether God actually heard their prayer, or speculating as to whether there will be any response from God to their prayer.

Truth be told, most of us struggle with prayer.

The issue of prayer is prevalent amongst Christians, and it is one of the most taught subjects in churches today. However, petitioning God isn’t effectively utilized by many, if not most, Christians. Moreover,  prayer is often a deep, dark mystery. In the minds of many, it’s a mystery they cannot solve, so they don’t try. They still want answers, though.

Indeed, we want a lot of things things in this life. We want, for example, our bodies healed of all disease. The Bible says in the Book of James, chapter 5, verses 13 through 16, “Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.  (14)  Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him,  anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,   (15)  and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick,  and the Lord shall raise him up,  and if he have committed sins,  it shall be forgiven him.  (16)  Confess therefore your sins one to another,  and pray one for another,  that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working”.

Christians need to have a different focus, a different perspective. We need to see prayer as a weapon. The primary weapon for the Christian is prayer. But, most don’t know how to use prayer as a weapon. Indeed, far too many don’t know that much about prayer. It’s a mysterious, unknowable ritual. It may have been a ritual for one General, but he obviously believed in prayer as a weapon. World War II saw a simple, rather short prayer for a change of weather being instrumental in defeating the Germans. General George Patton ordered a prayer to be drafted by his chaplain, then had it distributed to the troops,  directing them to all pray that God would change the weather. In a short time, the weather suddenly changed for the better, and instead of having troops immobilized by the weather, General Patton had an army that was able to move against the Germans. And, move they did!

Give consideration to this hypothetical. Suppose you were a warrior being sent to a combat zone. And,  suppose you were give a new weapon,  the most powerful rifle that had been made to date, but you put off learning the weapon. You presume you know how it works. The new, high-tech weapon appears to be like most rifles you’ve used. Then,  you’re sent off to a battle zone, and in the midst of  a very hot firefight, you realize that you really needed to have some time getting trained with the gun. Your moves with it are too clumsy. Your aim is not good. And, you fumble around trying to load and reload  the weapon.

Later, you find out one of your friends in the squad died, and two were wounded. It had been a very frightening time. Then, you  discover something astounding. You learn that your new rifle could have stopped the attackers  all by itself. You discover that if you’d put on a certain attachment  and made certain adjustments, then loaded the weapon with a magazine specially made for the weapon, it would flooded the air with a torrent of bullets, such that the enemy would have thought a dozen more men were fighting them.

How would you feel? You’d feel shame and sorrow. As  Christians, we ought all to be embarrassed and ashamed at not knowing how to pray effectively. You see, a Christian who does not know how to pray effectively endangers him or herself, as well as those closest to him or her.

Do you know how to pray effectively?  Did you know walking on water is akin to getting your prayers answered? Both require one essential ingredient: faith.

Could be, it’s time to learn.