What if I Hadn't Prayed

Here is my question for you today....Do you pray defensively? As I have shared in a few previous posts, I call satan "hairy butt satan". I know it isn't very lady like of me, but he is just nasty. Some would say my attention to the enemy gives him way too much credit. I say if you know what you are up against, then you can pray defensively.

I have a dear friend that taught me several years ago how to really enrich my prayer life. I have listened to her prayers for years and been the recipient of many of her sweet request. One day she taught me to pray for "corrupt companions" to be removed from my family's life. I know of some that have been and I am sure there are some I didn't even know about that have been removed. That one prayer taught me so much about praying defensively. As a pastor's wife, that specific prayer has been a part of my prayer life in the last three years. When you put your family out there to minister to so many, you don't limit who you love on. However, my protective heart for my family, begs God to do the filtering for us.

This weekend I really got to thinking about how important defensive prayers are. I thanked Jesus for the things that I wasn't even aware of that He has protected me from. I thanked Him for the things that don't look exactly the way I would like for them to, because I realized they could look a whole lot worse if I hadn't been praying. Defensive use of God's Word can put satan in his place. Jesus used the Word against satan when He was being tempted. He kept saying "It is written...." and finally satan gave up and left Him alone. Praying puts satan in his place and that is right under the feet of Jesus as a footstool!!!

Interestingly enough I went to the internet this morning to read up on some resources about praying defensively. In searching, the first thing that came up was the defensive tactics of a praying mantis. I was intrigued and found that the praying mantis has a cool defensive strategy we can all learn from. Also pretty cool that they are called PRAYING mantis huh? If you look at a picture of a praying mantis in a defensive position, they look like they are standing tall and praising Jesus. When threatened, they stand tall and spread their forelegs out wide to allow them to penetrate their target. They also spread their wings to make them look bigger and open their mouths.

Although we typically think of "getting on our knees" in prayer, I love the image of the praying mantis standing tall with confidence, limbs spread wide and opening their mouth. When we can develop the same defensive tactic in our prayer life we can rest in knowing that God really is bigger than the enemy we face. Our prayers should be in advance and with a confidence that can only come from really believing our God and the power of prayer.