Seven petitions

So, in the very prayer that Jesus has taught us, what does He give us? Seven petitions. Seven requests. He seeks to have us open our arms wide and ask Him. That’s what Dad does! Yet, prayer is no easy task…in this life. And it is not just because we may find ourselves doubting. It is because in prayer we place ourselves on the front line of the battle between God and Satan. You see, the moment that the Spirit enters our hearts and kindles faith in God, at the very moment we then turn to God crying , “Abba, Father,” at that moment we turn our backs on Satan. And Satan regards that as a delcation of war.. Nothing infuriates Satan more that to have someone freed from his captivity and returned home as an heir of the Creator.

Satan sets out with all his effort to deprive us of faith, to destroy our faith, and to turn us against the One who created us and redeemed us. It is in prayer that we especially concounter the struggles of faith. You see, the struggle of the Chrisitian life does not take place before faith. The struggle begins with the birth of faith! This situation was captured beautifully by C.S.Lewis in his book The Screwtape Letters. The book is about an apprentice devil named Wormwood, who has been assigned the task of looking after a young man who is not a Christian. Wormwood’s task is to make sure that the man does not become a Christian. And as long as the man is not a Christian, Womworod’s task is pretty easy. But one day, the man meets a young Christian woman. As their relationship develops, the young man becomes intrigued by Christianity. And now, Wormwood really has to kick into high gear to find ways of not only preventing the young man from becoming a Christian, but once he does so, to bring him back into Sa tan’s clutches. The book is a collection of letters written by Wormwood to his uncle Screwtape (a senior devil) seeking advice on how to keep this young man from becoming A Christian and how to destroy his faith once he does become a Christian.