A Lesson From Uganda

I just finished watching the documentary, “An Unconventional War,” put out by the Sentinel Group, about the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda, which reigned with terror for decades in this region. Although the gruesome details of this story are familiar to many, this film documented the lesser known account of how prayer and spiritual warfare brought down the Satanic powers backing this rebel group.

Much of it was difficult to watch. I was tempted to turn it off several times, but the victory of the praying church, spearheaded by the parents of abducted children, was worth waiting for. At the time the documentary was filmed (2005), Joseph Kony and the LRA had abducted 25,000 children, turning them into sex slaves and killers, sometimes forcing them to kill or mutilate their own family members. Eighty percent of the region’s population had been displaced because of the terror.

Amidst all of the horrific stories, one particular interview stood out in dramatic relief. It was an interview with a mother whose teen daughter had been abducted from her preparatory school. She related how not long after the abduction, she had gotten word that her daughter had been impregnated by one of the soldiers. The mother expectedly was heartbroken, but also bitter with anger against the injustice done to her child. As a Christian, she prayed fervently for her daughter to be delivered, but one night while crying out to God, she heard Him tell her that if she was going to pray while full of bitterness, she might as well not pray. It wasn't doing any good.

I knew that was a true principle from the word of God (Mark 11:25), and yet I recoiled as she told the story. “God,” I almost shouted. “It’s only natural for her to feel this way! How can you tell her to not be bitter?”

And then the Holy Spirit’s thoughts came to me: “Of course, that is the natural way to feel, but it's impossible to fight spiritual battles with natural weapons. To live in bitterness is to play right into the enemy’s hands and render you powerless. Only forgiveness and love give you the upper hand.”

This woman did forgive, get the upper hand over the enemy, and became a leader in the powerful prayer movement in Uganda.

As I pondered my own life of prayer, I had to admit that many times I harbored rancor in my heart, or at the least strong disdain, when praying for my country. The corruption, dishonesty and political maneuverings that I see make it easy for me to be disgusted with our elected (and unelected) representatives. There has been so much bias in the media, it’s hard to believe anything presented there without a good measure of cynicism.

Nonetheless, God’s word commands me to pray for my rulers and those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2). This women’s interview – and the Bible -- tell me that I need to get my heart right first if I want my prayers to be effective. Our country is in tremendous need of prayer. The evil that terrorized Uganda may be more blatant than what I see in the United States, but evil is of all types is going on relentlessly here , only cloaked in darkness. Our prayers have to be just as relentless -- and effective -- to bring light to the darkness, so that the darkness has to flee.

  

Passing the Garden Test

It's a strange time to talk about gardens when you've just experienced a winter blizzard like we have in the Midwest, but two gardens in particular are on my mind today.
Just as the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane was a test of human will vs. God’s will. We see Jesus’ humanity there like nowhere else in the Scriptures.
Jesus knew what had to happen as He grew closer to the time of His death, and yet His humanity was repulsed by it, wanting instead to go in a different direction. We shouldn’t get down on ourselves when our will shrinks back from what God wants. It is part of being human. That's the time to draw upon God’s resources to strengthen us to do His will.
That was the purpose of Jesus’ prayers in the garden. He needed the resources of God to set Himself in the right direction and be able to carry it through. That is very important. He foresaw the difficulty that He would face. He knew He had to make a fully aware decision that there was no going back on. Once He made it, He would see it through until the end. He didn’t leave Himself a way out. It was all or nothing.
That is the kind of consecration that God can bless. This is what will get us to God’s best for our lives. We don’t want to faint in our minds halfway through and start wondering if we can finish the course, or allow doubts and fears to stop us. What is the key? Praying it through ahead of time.
The reason the disciples said one thing ("We'll never leave you, Jesus") and did another (they all fled when He was arrested) is that they didn’t take the opportunity to pray when they had the chance. Jesus was trying to get them to see the importance of it. There was but a brief window of opportunity for them to get the victory in prayer, but they passed it up. It wasn’t as though God couldn’t help them after that, but they went through a lot of heartache, condemnation and difficulty that they could have avoided.
What if they would have prayed? Maybe God could have showed them what was coming so they could steel themselves for it. Maybe they would have been able to stick with Jesus when the hard times came. Maybe they would have had hope when everything looked so hopeless and their world fell apart. What a terrible time they went through, and Jesus was trying to spare them.
But God is faithful! Jesus prayed for them even when they didn’t pray for themselves. Ultimately, they were restored to faith and did great things for God. But it wasn’t an easy road.
God’s will may not seem like the easy road, but actually it is compared to going our own way. To stay on that path, we will have to be determined to see His plan through until the end, no matter what the cost.