I got around to seeing the movie “War Room” the other night. The Kendrick brothers have hit a home run with their best movie yet.
War Room is about a family in crisis. The marriage is crumbling, the daughter is heart-broken, this home is filled with tension. From outward appearances, the family is successful, but inside the four walls, this family is in deep distress.
Can anyone relate? Evidently they can, based on attendance so far.
“People resonate with what this movie is about,” said director Alex Kendrick.
Morning host Aaron Pearlman interviewed Stephen and Alex Kendrick on KBAK Fox 58, Bakersfield, Calif., recently, and gushed about how much the movie moved him.
“I saw this movie last weekend with a group of people, and (he chokes up) I’m going to start crying before I get into this. It changed my life so much … immediately after this movie, I went home, ripped out everything in my closet, and made my own war room.”
Then Perlman asked, “What is the impact in people’s lives based on this film?”
“We think God is the answer. We think He wants us to seek Him and turn to Him. You know our culture is in a pretty good mess, no matter how you look at it . . . and we think that it’s time we turn back to God … War Room talks about the power of prayer and what God can do.”
People who pray have seen what God can do, whether it’s a healed marriage or a major obstacle removed. Too often, we neglect this powerful tool that unlocks the power of heaven.
Oswald Chambers wrote, “The job of every Christian is to pray. Plain and simple. Yet we want to do more than simply pray. We want to do something important for God; we want to be someone important to Him. We want to build; we want to mobilize; we want to show our strength and exert our influence. Prayer seems like such a small thing to do …
“We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but Jesus wants us to pray before we do anything at all.”
Chambers wrote, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”
War Room emphasizes this truth, and also reminds us that we are in a battle with an unseen enemy. When this wife realized that her husband wasn’t her enemy, and that Satan was, she began to pray against the enemy and for her husband.
Do we realize we are in a war? We casually approach prayer as a chance to make sure God knows our requests. We are lazy prayers. How often do we dig in and pray more than five minutes at a time? How many keep a prayer list and record answered prayers? How many of us pray beyond the blessing at mealtime?
Paul wrote in Colossians 4:2, “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.”
Continuing in prayer shows an attitude of total continuous dependence upon God. Vigilance means we are watchful and alert, always on guard and ready to meet danger head on.
For what should we be alert? In the context of the Colossian letter, Paul warned these believers to be alert to false teaching that was infiltrating the church. Also, be alert to lazy, undisciplined praying. It’s so easy to try to pray and find ourselves distracted.
H. M. Carson wrote, “The evil one makes the believer careless, so that he neglects the very practice of prayer, or … he dulls his mind or distracts his thoughts. Hence, watchfulness means a disciplined attention to this continuous ministry.”
Also, be alert to temptation, and to our spiritual battle. Just as the military has a war room to plan strategically how to meet the enemy in battle, we need to do that in our personal lives, says Alex Kendrick.
We need “to pray strategically first, asking God to protect us, direct us and guide us before engaging in whatever issues or battles we face. When you take the time to pray strategically and fight your battles in prayer first, it will make a huge difference.”
God promised, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Georgia. Join them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. Visit them on the web at www.mcdonoughroad.org and like them on Facebook.
