The Real Victory Comes Through Prayer

Type your new text here.

We are in the middle of our series “For the Win,” which is about winning in spiritual warfare. Too long have Christians walked around defeated, depressed, and anxious. Jesus said He came so that we could have life abundantly. Where is that abundance? Well, our enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

We pray that through this series, you will begin to experience victory, win the fight, and take back what the devil has taken from you.

To recap the past few weeks, we have discussed where the battle begins- in our minds. Our thought life is the front line of this battle, and it’s a downhill spiral if we do not take control there. Last week Pastor Rodney spoke about strongholds or areas in our life that we couldn’t seem to get victory in. Three weeks ago, we talked about the armor of God and the equipment we are given for this spiritual war.

I want to revisit that armor briefly before hitting today’s topic.


Paul then continues, and this is what we are going to talk about today:


How often does Paul say to pray? Always.

Today we are talking about how The Real Victory Comes Through Prayer

Before we talk about prayer, I want us to really define what prayer is.

It’s been said that prayer is simply talking to God. And that’s true. Prayer does not require any secret formulas or magic words.

Jesus drove this point home on multiple occasions.



Jesus points out that it is this humble, simple prayer that God accepts, not the pompous, proud, well-trained, and educated one.

Or in Matthew 6:5-8 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”

7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8 Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”

When it comes to prayer, God simply seeks a humble, open heart. He does not desire fancy words or elaborate speeches.

This is why we say prayer is just talking to God, and it’s true. 100%. But sometimes, I wonder if we have missed some other essential parts of prayer in trying to make prayer seem easy and casual.
Because the truth is, sometimes prayer is hard. Sometimes it’s very hard. And if I were to stand here today and tell you prayer is easy and no big deal, and then you go home and pray, you may find yourself unprepared.

Or I wonder if we have made prayer too casual. We want God to seem approachable, and He is. But how many of you have friends, family, or a spouse that is approachable? Is that any reason to take them for granted or not cherish your time together? No.

Have you ever wondered why God wants us to pray in the first place? The Bible says He already knows our needs, and God can do anything; He isn’t reliant on us. And praying really seems like doing nothing, doesn’t it? In the natural, you are just speaking into the air.

How many of you here are doers? You like to get stuff done but hate sitting still? How many of you are totally fine relaxing and doing nothing?

Isn’t it ironic that prayer seems like nothing to people who can’t sit still, and for people who don’t mind doing nothing, prayer seems too much?

That’s why God wants prayer. It is totally faith. To spend time speaking to a being we can’t see takes faith. But some will say I have faith; why does God need to pray? Faith without action is dead, so prayer is putting action to that belief.

God spoke the universe into existence with only words. God is the one who enacted the plan of salvation and sent Jesus when we wanted nothing to do with Him. God is the one who raised Jesus from the dead and offers us eternal life. God did everything to take care of our sin. God is the one who sustains reality, and whenever He decides not to, it will cease.

You and I aren’t even guaranteed our next breath. God does not need us for anything. But He wants us. And He has given us free will, to reject Him or freely choose Him freely.

The one thing God wants is our faith, and it’s up to us if we will give it or not.


You and I can’t really take credit for things accomplished in prayer. Because we know it wasn’t us but God who did those things.

So why prayer? Because it is an expression of faith, and it’s also an act of obedience because we are commanded to pray.

So that’s why we pray. Prayer is a privilege.

Although God is approachable, anyone can pray, and no special words are needed; prayer is not a casual activity.

Prayer is a privilege. By faith, when we pray, we approach the throne of Almighty God. The being who is without beginning or end. The uncaused cause. The one who appears in fire, who is immortal and undefeatable. The one whose every word is accomplished without fail. He spoke, and galaxies rolled off His tongue.

He made everything. Every atom, every mountain range on every planet in every solar system, in every galaxy, in every corner of the universe.

He knows everything, every thought, everything that could be or has been, every event, and how those events play into other events and other events and other events. He knows how it flows throughout all of time, and He never has a headache over any of it.

The God who split the seas, stopped the sun, and raised the dead. This ultimate unfathomable being, the supreme king of the universe, and yet He chooses to stop and listen when you and I speak His name.

How often do you stop to consider a fly’s thoughts? Right? You are a vastly more complex and intellectual being whose ways cannot be considered by the fly, so why would you stop to put its needs above your own?

As much as we are superior to a fly, God is infinitely greater than us, yet He tells us He wants us to talk to Him.

You may be offended by the fly analogy and think I have way more value than a fly, and you do. But the value you have, you only have because God has placed that value on you.

Imagine today your favorite celebrity or an important world leader called and said they wanted to meet with you. Would you approach that meeting casually, in sweatpants, with no preparation?
Probably not. See, we know when things are important, and we give them the appropriate attention. Today I urge you that although anyone can do prayer at any time, and there are no special words and no special people, prayer is not some casual flippant activity. Prayer is a privilege.

The supreme being in the universe wants to speak with us. We should not take that lightly.

We pray in faith, even when it’s hard.

To close, let’s talk practically about how to pray.

 The disciples asked Jesus how to pray. What did He tell them?


This is how Jesus said to start our prayer. For God to be hallowed. How many of us actually use the word hallowed in our day-to-day life? What does hallowed mean? It means to be made holy.

Jesus is saying that we should start our prayers by giving God the respect He deserves. We talked about this earlier. Not taking it for granted, but in both our attitudes and words, giving God the respect He deserves.


This is about priority and perspective. How many of you know when you are in a situation, it can be hard to see things clearly? But when you are outside of a problem, it can be so simple. Here we set our perspective above- where God’s is.

We recognize what’s really important and pray that what God wants most will happen. That His kingdom will come- that people will turn to Him and experience abundant life through Christ.
This perspective frames what comes next, asking for our own needs.


We present our requests to God because we know He hears us. Because we know He cares for us. We lift up the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs that we have and see in others around us.

Often this is where our prayers begin and end, with a grocery list of wants that we hand to God. But Jesus continues.


In teaching His disciples to pray, Jesus clarifies that repentance and humility are necessary. We all make mistakes- and God wants to forgive us- but we need to turn to Him continually. But notice, He says, as we have also forgiven.

It seems to Jesus that our own receiving of forgiveness is tied to our willingness to forgive others.

This is made all the more apparent if you jump down to verses 14 and 15


If we want God to forgive us, we must also forgive. Unforgiveness is a stronghold, as we talked about last week. If you feel like your prayers aren’t being answered- check your heart. Are you harboring unforgiveness there?


Jesus closes by asking God to protect and save us from temptation.

In this outline, Jesus shows how everyone can pray- from the seasoned saint to the newborn believer.

After Paul explained the armor of God, he moved right on to talking about prayer- signifying that prayer is the action he assumed we would take.

All the learning, all the reading, and all the sermons we hear are worthless unless we act on them. Prayer is the action we need to take.

As Oswald Chambers said: “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”