The Battlefield of Prayer

Richelle Alessi [00:00:01]:
You're listening to my Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1300. Today's Evo is called the Battlefield of Prayer.

The Alessies [00:00:09]:
Hey there. We're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast.

Richelle Alessi [00:00:30]:
Good morning, everybody, and happy Friday. We've made it to an incredible week of devotionals, and I really hope that this week is blessing you the way that it actually has blessed me. And I'm so thankful that Jackie Roman said yes to coming on and finishing this week out with me on prayer. And as you heard earlier, we're on a 1300 episode. I can't believe we're here. I feel like just the other day we got to the a thousand episode and now we're already here.

Jackie Roman [00:00:58]:
Amazing.

Richelle Alessi [00:00:59]:
So let's take a moment to celebrate, but also thank the Lord for the life change and for the opportunity that we get to come together in this podcast and just learn more about the Lord and learn more about His Word and his truth. Not our opinions, because we're not here for our opinions, but we're here to truly want to know more about God and what the Bible says about God. And so we're thankful for you guys for listening. And we're going to go out with a great episode this week because Ms. Jackie is going to be now talking about more about the spiritual aspect of prayer. And day one and two, she gave us great tools that we can use as married couples, as individuals. And today this is going to be the cherry on top that ties it all together. Right, Miss Jackie?

Jackie Roman [00:01:42]:
I hope so.

Richelle Alessi [00:01:42]:
All right, all right, you take it away.

Jackie Roman [00:01:44]:
You know, yesterday we were talking about and I, I started the podcast with letting everybody know that, you know, the focus is on praying in marriage, but singles can do this also. And I think we'll find in this topic that, yes, this is a marriage focus on praying together, but when we come into unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ, it can also be a powerful thing.

Richelle Alessi [00:02:13]:
Yes.

Jackie Roman [00:02:14]:
And we mentioned the Scripture, John 17:21, and how our unity is not just for us, but it's a representation of Jesus's unity with his Father. And so we're going to be looking at that a little bit more this morning. And I'm going to be reading from John 17, but it's from 20 to 23. And this is the message version. I'm praying not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. So they might be one in heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you in fact sent me the same glory you gave me.

Jackie Roman [00:02:58]:
I gave them so that they'll be unified and together as we are, I in them, and you and me. Then they'll be mature in this oneness and give the godless world evidence that you've sent me and love them in the same way you've loved me. So we love being connect group leaders, especially for marriages. That's one of our favorite things to do. And it is such an honor to see marriages go from good to great, empowered with wisdom and knowledge that they may not have had before. You know, we don't. We don't go into marriage with all of this knowledge and wisdom. We go to a connect group or we glean from other married couples that have gone before us and can impart a thing or two in us.

Jackie Roman [00:03:48]:
But one of our favorite lessons that we do is on communication. And we all know that we're in a spiritual battle for our marriages. That's a given. The enemy doesn't make it easy for us in our marriages. You know, it's not easy when we're together. But put that together in a marriage setting, and now it's two people that are trying to get to know each other, and that just can be, you know, all chaos. And what we started thinking about, you know, in war. Rachelle, what's the enemy's first plan of attack? You know, it's to cut their opponent's communication.

Richelle Alessi [00:04:23]:
Yeah.

Jackie Roman [00:04:23]:
Because if they can't communicate, they can't strategize, and they can't see what's past, what's in front of them. Most people just. They become on the defensive, only instead of being on the offensive, you will have people who are supposed to be working, unified in their mission, taking chances and going in different directions as they see fit because they have no communication. They all may have the same goal initially, which is to defeat the enemy. But if they're scattered, how effective are they going to be? If they can't communicate, they can't win. Prayer is your secret weapon to combat the enemy's plan to attack your marriage. In John, you see how God's plan is for us to Be as one as he and Jesus are one, so that the world can know him. So being united with each other through prayer is what gives us the advantage.

Jackie Roman [00:05:15]:
We hear each other's hearts and dreams in this most intimate space, A space where we can hear our Father's desire for our lives. A space where we receive peace in the midst of what we might feel is chaos all around us. It's in this space where he binds us together, our will being laid out on the altar to his will in our lives. When we allow God to penetrate our inmost being together as a couple, we become so strong that it affects everyone around us. This is when we see God's love become evident to others. Isn't that amazing? They see the joy and peace that unity in each other and in him brings us. Our marriage is an actual living testimony for Christ. He loved us so much that he sacrificed his son for us.

Jackie Roman [00:06:04]:
His son loved us so much that he died for us. And just as he died for us, he calls the husband to love his wife so much to his death. And he calls the wife to love her husband so much that it naturally causes her to submit to his leadership. This is the love that drives our marriage. How do we get to this kind of love? Unity in prayer.

Richelle Alessi [00:06:29]:
Wow. Unity in prayer. So prayer is her secret, secret weapon to everything we do in marriage. You know, Chris and I didn't always pray together when we got married because it goes back to the other episode about being awkward and not knowing. But I remember during a time in our church where a conference. Conference was happening. And yeah, we did prayers together here and there for big things, but prayer together wasn't a thing we were intentional about because it's what. When you say it's two separate lives coming together, who you have your ways of praying.

Richelle Alessi [00:07:05]:
But when we started to pray together more, we just felt more connected because now there was something that both of us together were trying to accomplish and that we were both seeking the Lord for. And it was not separate missions. It was one.

Jackie Roman [00:07:19]:
Correct.

Richelle Alessi [00:07:20]:
And if we're not careful, sometimes in marriage, we might feel like you're running two different races and then coming together for some things, but it's together all the time. And what brought that alignment was prayer and understanding that. And so even through our connect group, when we learned more and how you guys would show us how you guys would pray and then how you guys would pray for us, it really showed us that we needed to be more intentional about prayer. And even after this week, I'm going back and I'M saying I'm going to initiate this time. I'm going to say there's a couple of things that we have to maybe be intentional about. Praying every single day together now once a week or after church or on church on Sundays, but every single day to build our spiritual muscles put together now, not just separate.

Jackie Roman [00:08:03]:
Yeah. And I love how you said that we might each be going through something different, but when we come together in prayer for that one thing, we become unified and the enemy can't bring us down. And so I think that helps marriages as well as single people. Find your sister in Christ, find your tribe that can go to prayer for you in those moments. Because when you become. Become unified in that thing for that thing, you are no longer scattered. You no longer feel like you're in this war alone, but you have your team who has your back, and you can definitely take out the enemy.

Richelle Alessi [00:08:46]:
That's right. And our communication won't be cut.

Jackie Roman [00:08:49]:
Right.

Richelle Alessi [00:08:49]:
We will win the battle because we know our secret weapon is prayer.

Jackie Roman [00:08:53]:
Is prayer.

Richelle Alessi [00:08:54]:
Ms. Jackie, thank you for this week. Can you pray for us?

Jackie Roman [00:08:57]:
Yes, I would love to. Lord, I thank you because this week we realized that we don't have to do prayer alone. We don't have to fight the battle alone. We can do it with our spouse and we can do it with the brothers and sisters that you have placed around us. And Father, I thank you because you've given us such a powerful tool against the enemy where he wants to bring chaos and confusion. You bring clarity and you bring power. And, and because of that, we know that we can go and we can fight the battle and you are going to help us win with your strength. And Father, we just thank you for the ability to just bring everything in prayer to you, whether it be big or small.

Jackie Roman [00:09:41]:
You're there to hear it all and you answer it all because you're such a good father who loves us so much. And we just, we know that, that this week we're going to look at prayer differently. We are going to unify ourselves with our spouse or with our brothers and sisters in the faith, and we're going to stand strong. We're not going to be awkward, we're not going to be intimidated, but we're going to know that you can give us power and sound mind, and we're not going to going to be intimidated by the enemy's attacks. But Lord, we're going to present everything in prayer to you, knowing that when we do, you're going to give us a unity that we can only find in your presence. And with that unity, we will be stronger and we will be more effective. And we will see chains break in our lives and in those around us. Because they will see your glory, they will see your peace, they will see your love radiating from our lives.

Jackie Roman [00:10:50]:
Lord, let our lives be a testimony to those who are around us, whether we realize it or not. And let it all bring glory to your name. In Jesus name. Amen.

Richelle Alessi [00:11:01]:
Amen.

The Alessies [00:11:02]:
So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend. Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.