I have come to realize that the opposite of prayer is complaining. Whenever we SHOULD be prayer, we’re usually complaining, whether it be to ourselves or with others. It’s a way of this world and a way that helps Satan into our lives.
Whenever we live with complaint on our tongues, rather than prayer, we’re allowing the world – and devil – to win the war against us. We’re also allowing our self-control to slip away and become weaker. When we choose to complain about our problems more than prayer about our problems, eventually when we do decide “Hey, maybe I should pray about this…” The devil has a wide open hole to sneak in and whisper, “yeah but then you’ll just be bother God.” OR “yeah but prayer is just a waste of time.” OR “yeah but praying about it is useless, because it doesn’t even work; it’s not as powerful as others say it is.”
1. Satan tells us that we’re bothering God with our prayers.
Satan tells us we are wasting God’s time; that our prayers are an annoyance to God, especially when we keep on praying the same exact thing. If God hasn’t given it to us yet, He isn’t going to. This is what Satan wants us to believe. He devalues the act of praying and he devalues the prayers themselves. He wants us to believe we are wasting God’s time or that we are bothering God, so that we don’t pray.
But God cares about what we care about, no matter how minor and trivial we may think it is, and no matter how many times we pray the same prayer (we are told to be persistent).
2. Satan tells us that prayer is a waste of our time.
Satan tells us that prayer is time-consuming (and not in a good way). He tells us we are wasting our time always going to a God who doesn’t even listen to our prayers, much less answer them. Satan tells us it is much easier and satisfying complaining about everything that bothers us, rather than praying to a God who doesn’t care.
But God does care and prayer is not a waste of our time. God listens, we need only to have faith and turn to prayer instead of being grumbling, mumbling fools.
3. Satan tells us that prayer is pointless and not powerful.
Satan tells us that prayer is not powerful. He tells us that it’s completely pointless; there are way too many people praying and God can’t hear them all. Prayer is not powerful because God is not powerful.
But God can hear every single persons’ prayers. Prayer is our strongest weapon against the devil, which is why He doesn’t want us to believe in it’s power. When we pray, we ask the Lord to work on our behalf, and when the devil hears Jesus Christ coming, he scatters, for nothing is more powerful than our Lord.
Conclusion
We feed into Satan’s trap when we sit and wallow in our gloom. When we complain about our circumstances or the people around us or strangers around the world, we fall into Satan’s trap. When we are so consumed with the negativity around us, we lack the hope or compassion to pray.
Satan wants us to wallow for all of eternity. He doesn’t want us to look to God and pray. He wants us to focus on nothing else except the issues we’re facing and the issues of others. He doesn’t want us to experience joy. He doesn’t want us to be filled with gratitude. He doesn’t want us to experience peace.
All the more reasons to choose PRAYER over complaining. When we pray for our own situation, we allow space for ourselves to feel all of the feelings and let them all out knowing that GOD is listening and that GOD has everything under control; we need only to trust in His ways for our lives. Thus, once we have prayed and accepted our situation for what it is, we gain peace that God is with us and listening always.
When we pray for others, we are allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to do what we cannot do; and we’re allowing grace to be given to those individuals, rather than slander or judgement towards them. Everybody just needs a whole lot of grace and prayers, so let’s focus on those things instead of complaining which will get nobody nowhere.
When we turn to prayer FIRST, we allow gratitude, kindness, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and LOVE to pour out into our own lives and others.
LET’S CHOOSE PRAYER OVER COMPLAINING, TODAY.
God Bless.