For thought and meditation

[rl69]

But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. —Daniel 10:13 Sometimes we don’t consider the fact that when we pray, spiritual warfare can be taking place. The prophet Daniel had been in the presence of God. And in Daniel 10, we read, “Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling, to my hands and knees. And the man said to me, ‘Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you’” (verses 10–11). In the beginning of this chapter, and earlier in chapter 9, we see that Daniel was in prayer. This angel was saying, “When you offered your prayer, it was heard in Heaven.” Sometimes our prayers may not be answered as quickly as we would like due to spiritual warfare behind the scenes in the supernatural world. Daniel was praying on earth, and God heard him in Heaven and dispatched an angel with the answer. Yet somewhere between Heaven and earth, between the visible and the invisible, this angel was accosted by an evil angel, and a battle took place. After twenty-one days, God dispatched a higher-ranking angel, Michael in this case, to help the other angel. From this account, we see that supernatural activity can hinder our prayers from being answered. This is especially important to remember when we are praying for the salvation of those who don’t know the Lord. A battle is taking place, and the devil is at work, wanting to keep them from hearing the gospel and from coming to faith. When you pray and don’t see your prayer answered, it simply means that you should keep praying. The answer might come twenty-one days later, thirty-one days later, or twenty-one years later. But we should not stop praying.

[USMC87]

Amen, I know that we all fight this battle as we pray. We may be praying and talking with God and the next second we are out fishing or gardening, Satan attacks at will and loves to come between us.

[buckwheatpaul]

Amen to both of your lessons. God is firmly in charge yet there is our free choice and satan to contend with. This post is one of the first things I look forward to when I open up Cast Boolits forum. Several weeks ago I posted be thankful for what God does for us as well as thankful for those things He does for us that we don't know about it....kind of dovetails into today's lesson and I would like to thank you both for the Bible study lesson.

[square butte]

Very good lesson - It's tough to know exactly what goes on behind the scene. God is in control

[Boaz]

God's work is on his own time . That a war is in progress there is no doubt and we are involved in it . But the result and end are told . Thank you rl69

[Blackwater]

That last paragraph is SO pertinent, especially in a day and age when we've become accustomed to instant results. We have little patience, and what we do have seems to be diminishing steadily. And patience was one thing highly recommended by our Lord to us. God sees MUCH further down the line than we do. All we can do, really, is just pray, and hope. Then, it's up to God, and He always gives us some sort of answer, including a "No," now and then. But He ALWAYS hears us, and always answers. Just not always like we want Him to. But He loves us enough to give us what we NEED instead of what we ask for sometimes. When I don't get the answer I want from Him, my first step is to review what I asked for, and the real reason I asked for it, to see if I was in error or maybe not in the right spirit when I prayed. Or maybe a bit selfish sometimes, too.

But all in all, it's amazing how many prayers He answers like we want them to be. Sometimes, his answers take some time to come to full fruition, but I don't think any of us can complain about that. He always knows best, and I've come to realize that more fully than I once did. And now, I've come to think about what I want to pray for, and examine my motives and spirit in the reqeust, before I render it up. This surely keeps me humble, and I think God appreciates that.