The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. That’s the bad news. The good news is that God has given us spiritual armor with which to defend ourselves as well as spiritual weapons with which to fight back with. The sixth piece of armor God gave us is The Sword of the Spirit & Prayer (Ephesians 6:17b-18)
E: We need the sword of the Spirit and prayer to cut off Satan’s attacks. When Satan attacks with an enticement to sin – are we left defenseless? The answer is a resounding “No!” We have two very powerful weapons: the word of God and prayer.
Don’t know if you heard about this or not, but back in May 2015 a rabid fox attacked some children who were playing in the back yard in Canton MA. The pregnant mother screamed for her husband who was inside. He came out with a gun and shot the fox three times, killing it. I share this story because it illustrates the importance of having a weapon for protection. Spiritually, God has given us two powerful weapons: the sword of the Spirit – which is the word of God – AND prayer.
Owning a Bible but not reading it is like owning a gun but having no ammunition loaded in the gun. An unloaded gun has no protective value. In the same way, an unread Bible has no spiritual protective value. In the same way that you need to load your gun, you have to load your mind with the word of God by actually reading it. Then, and only then, will you have some ammunition to shoot at the devil with when he attacks. Friends – the word of God is a powerful form of ammunition. So powerful in fact, it was the weapon of choice for Jesus when Satan tempted him in the wilderness (you can read about that in more detail in Matthew 4).
And if the word of God is the ammunition, then prayer (your other spiritual weapon) is a grenade launcher. Jesus taught us to pray “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” If you’re falling into lots of temptation, I’m willing to bet you don’t pray that prayer very often. Its a powerful prayer, but only if you pray it!
Some might say: I’m not really comfortable talking about bible reading and prayer as weapons. Isn’t there some other analogy you could use? Well, no. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Paul was saying in essence: You want to know how to win the war against Satan. You want to know how to blow away your spiritual nemesis so he calls a retreat? You got to use the powerful weapons God has given you. When you read your Bible and pray, you’ve strapped on the spiritual weapons God has given you that compliment the armor. You don’t just have armor, you also have weapons: the word of God and prayer.