Prayers

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Gloria J. Bell, Ph.D.
19009-116 S. Laurel Park Rd.
Rancho Dominguez, CA 90220
562-665-4683
Word Count 990


Prayer Battles in the Night

The forest never sleeps. Leaves flutter in the breeze, while the branches rock and reel whipped by the wind seemingly in rhythm. The night life of nocturnal animals is alive, busily absorbed in routine survival. You might think the creatures of the sea are unconcerned about light and darkness, but even many sea scavengers do their feeding at night when they have the greatest advantage stalking their prey.
When the sun sets and the day gives way to star light, night activity in the cities is no less bustling. Factories continue to grind out products, while night spots do their dark hour thing to entertain those, wearied by the day, into forgetting, if only for a few hours. While the eyes of evil glare bulging as if awakened by the terror of a bloody moon, the knees of the weary soul fall again to the floor positioning for a prayer battle for their own soul and against the threatening forces that cloak every affliction like a deep dark shadow wrapping around life’s scene at the close of the day. While the night invites the human scavengers’ uncanny deeds, those that seek God, like Nicodemus, grope in the darkness of their own heart, for truth that can only be authenticated in an encounter with Jesus. He extorts life’s question like an echo skipping through a forest of hearts, “How can a man be born when he is old?”1
No different was that night Jesus, weighed down to silence, pressed his disciples along the dark but familiar path to the Garden of Gethsemane. Taking Peter, James, and John a little closer to the battle scene, Jesus leaves them to watch and pray while he steps, like a champion boxer, into the struggle for the salvation of guilty humankind. Like a fighter staggering to his corner for refreshing, three times he returned for the comfort and encouragements of his closest friends, only to find them asleep. What, could ye not watch with me one hour?2 They slept through his stumbling, barely able to hold up his exhausted body. They never saw his eyes swollen with tears and the sweat on his brow mixed with blood. His loud groans and pleading utterances negotiating the price of sin fell on deafened ears. There was no empathy for His human spirit so overwhelmed by the retinue of evil forces that it gushed forth the words, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.3 Finally, Jesus tells them, sleep on. My battle is over.
There are times when the battles of life take us from the hustle and bustle of the day’s business to an even more serious prayer business during the night seasons. During the battles of the night, when the very soul is at stake, when truth can only be authenticated by an encounter with Jesus, and the only cry we can utter is that forced from Jacob’s lips, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me,4 Jesus reminds us, there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,5 and I am He. It is as though our Savior, not only foresaw that dark Gethsemane experience with his disciples, but vowed never to sleep through the battles of our darkest nights.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. Psalms 121:4-7
When our battles with sin are heaviest, and our intercession for others is most agonizing, remember Jesus has been there and is always there for us. The darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.6
Between our early morning rounds, Jesus is there to give comfort just when we need Him most. In fact, all Heaven is astir. Angels who rest neither day nor night are constantly dispatched from Heaven to earth specifically to minister to our needs and preserve us wherever we are in are prayer rounds.7 Like the cloud by day that guided the children of Israel for forty years in the wilderness, God leads the way, keeping in check the full impact of devastating circumstances so that we can bear them. As our pillar of light by night, His Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.8 When crises overtake our loved ones and jeopardize our own wellbeing, the darkness may obscure His healing touch, however, because He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin, Jesus is able to keep those committed to Him.9 We may find ourselves backed into the darkness of our own thoughts questioning whether Jesus cares, just enough light will lead us into His fortress where only with our eyes we shall see the reward of the wicked.10
We are no match for the demonic forces that especially assail against the spiritual person. The inescapable assaults on our health, our finances, our relationships, etc., like powerful forces, are deliberately intended by the enemy to weaken our spiritual grounding of faith in God. However, what was meant for evil against us, God will bring out good.11 Even if the fight escalates into a full battle, in our ringside prayers late in the night, we can cheer victory in Jesus, for the battle is not ours, it’s the Lord’s.12 If we trust in Jesus through the howling winds of the night seasons, joy will surely come in the morning.13

And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands. 1Samuel 17:47


1 John 3:4
2 Matthew 26:40
3 Mark 14:34-36
4 Genesis 32:24
5 Proverbs 18:24
6 Psalm 139:12
7 Revelation 4:8, Hebrews 11:1, Psalms 91:11
8 Psalm 119:105
9 Hebrews 4:15, 2 Timothy 1:12
10 Psalm 91
11 Genesis 50:20
12 2 Chronicles 20:15
13 Psalm 30:5

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