Get On Your Knees and Fight Like a Man

How many of you can date yourself and your music selection by knowing where that lyric came from? It is a simple line yet one filled with tremendous power and challenge. On first reading it appears to be a contradiction in terminology. If we are really going to fight then why would we do it from our knees? Why would we not position ourselves in the strongest stance or the place that would afford us the greatest advantage over our enemies? Well, the contradiction in terms is actually a truth that confounds and confuses, yet if followed releases tremendous power and opportunity.

“Get on your knees and fight like a man” could be translated as this – “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chron 7:14) We fight for lots of things, we fight for our families, we fight for our rights, we fight for the things that we believe in. We fight in our own strength and our own power and we live in a world where the dominant win and the strong survive. However, we serve a Lord who does not follow those rules, we serve a God who is the strongest, who is the greatest, yet He does not use that force to accomplish His tasks. We serve a God who “…chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor 1:27) We serve a God who asks us to rely on Him. We serve a God who asks us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, we serve a God who asks us to humble ourselves and pray and seek His face. When the God of the universe asks us to do something as simple then shouldn’t we just do what He says?

So why don’t we?

The stumbling block in this statement from 2 Chronicles 7:14 is this – ‘humble themselves’. Have you ever wondered why that is in there? It must be in there for a reason, and the reason has to be because the people refused to humble themselves. They were a “proud and stiff-necked people”. Does this verse apply to us today? Are we a proud and stiff necked people who need to humble ourselves and pray? Are we a people who desperately want to see the Lord do a marvelous thing in our church and in our community yet refuse to bend our knee and lower our heads in submission and humility to the King of Kings? I don’t know if you have thought about this, but God has been challenging me about this recently. God has been challenging me on the things that I ask Him to do for our church and yet the lack of time I spend seeking Him with other people in the church. Recently Pastor Ray challenged us on our walk with the Lord and our personal prayer life. While mine is not perfect and could do with some help, I have been convicted over our corporate prayer life at Mt Oak, or at least my lack of personal involvement in our corporate prayer life.

We have a faithful and dedicated handful of saints who gather each Wednesday night in the sanctuary of our church and every week they pray for our leadership, they pray for our children, they pray for our ministry, they pray for our church, they pray for our city and they pray for our country. They pray faithfully because the truth of the statements above has gripped their hearts. Over the past few months I have been challenged to join with them, and that is what I intend to do. On Wednesday evenings after our church family dinner I have decided that it is time for me to humble myself, time for me to pray, time for me to turn from my wicked (and selfish) ways and time for me to seek His face. Is God asking you to do the same thing at your church? Is God asking you to humble yourself and pray and seek His face? Maybe it is time for more than just me to join with faithful prayer servants and spend time on our knees fighting like warriors – prayer warriors.

Do you think that corporate prayer should be a priority for a church? Do you think that corporate prayer should be a priority for you? Would you give up just 6 Wednesday evenings from 7-8.15pm to learn about prayer and spend time in prayer? We are planning to run a 6 week training series to teach us and encourage us to pray. Why don’t you come to our family dinner on Wednesday night, drop the kids off at Awana or youth small groups and come join me as I join our faithful prayer warriors and seek the Lord together. In the immortal words of Nike – Just do it!