We have been studying the armor of God on Wednesday nights.  We have discussed the helmet of salvation, which protects us from carnality, fear and pride with a saved, spiritual, sound, servant mind.  The breastplate of righteousness, which protects us through the righteousness of Jesus Christ when we stay right with God and do right.  The girdle of truth, which protects us against the lies of the devil.  The shield of faith, which protects us by having faith in God and in God’s words.  The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and which protects us when we speak the words of God.  Tonight we’ll discuss the greaves of prayer.  

The greaves aren’t mentioned in the whole armor of God, but you get the picture that we stand in battle [Eph 6:11, 13, 14] when we kneel in prayer.  And, thus, our legs are covered.  In our spiritual battles:

We should pray for others – Eph 6:18 – “prayer and supplication… for all saints.”  Lk 22:31-32 – Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith wouldn’t fail because Satan desired to have him to sift him as wheat.  In Matt 17:21 Jesus said, concerning the devil he cast out of the boy, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”  We need to pray for each other.

We should pray for boldness – Eph 6:18-19 – Paul asked the Ephesians to pray for him to open his mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.  He could have easily become discouraged because of the opposition he faced everywhere he preached the gospel.  Dr Ruckman said that  “Discouragement is one of the greatest weapons the devil uses against preachers.”  In Acts 4:31, after the disciples had been threatened about preaching Jesus, they prayed.  The Holy Spirit filled them and “they spake the word of God with boldness.”  After the burning of Ziklag, David had to encourage himself in the Lord [1 Sam 30:6].  Then he and his men boldly defeated the Amalekites, rescued their families, and recovered their possessions.  We must pray to keep from becoming discouraged in our spiritual warfare.

We should pray against temptation – Jude 9 – When Michael was confronted by the devil, he said, “The Lord rebuke thee.”  And he didn’t bring a railing accusation against the devil.  Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” [Matt 6:13].  In Matt 26:41, after he caught the disciples sleeping in the garden, Jesus said, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.”  We must pray to be protected against temptation.

We should pray against fear – Ps 64:1 – David’s prayer in this verse was, “preserve my life from fear of the enemy.”  The devil wants you to be afraid of him.  But 2 Tim 1:7 says that God hath not given us the spirit of fear.  Instead of being afraid of the devil, we should fear God and pray so that we don’t fear the enemy.

Conclusion: prayer is a very powerful weapon spiritual warfare.  We should use this weapon more than we do.