Prayer Is a Battle

Read Daniel 10 with Ephesians 6 and you should never again wonder why you do not have an easy time at prayer, or why answers are sometimes delayed. Reckon on God, but also reckon with the devil, and then by vigilance and perseverance see to it that you are not hindered in pursuing a ministry, a work, a battle, the scope and issues of which cannot be measured. Satan hates prayer and hinders it, challenges prayer and chokes it. You may work and plan and talk until you are weary, but it will be in vain to the extent that you allow Satan to rob you of the prayer stream. Prayer alone vitalizes work.

Finally, this must be said: to resist the devil is but a healthy operation of the divine life. Just as the white blood cells police our bodies to apprehend and slay disease germs, so the spiritual life needs the energy of the might of Christ to garrison it from the deadly inroads of the world, the flesh, and the devil.