This is the Truth Network. Encouraging prayer. God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On encouraging prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray.
And now, here's James.
Okay, James, you you got me with today's Um Title, right? Praise to Soothe the Savage Beast. What's that all about? You think I'm going to give my secrets away all at once? I want to start with a a little story about this one.
I have a dog named Butley. And I just love Dudley. And Dudley is my boy. Let me tell you, he follows me from room to room and just a faithful, faithful dog. And the other day I'm doing something that some dog owners sometimes do.
I was singing to him. And you know, just making up a song on the spot about About what a good boy he is. And he's sitting there listening. He has this bone in his mouth. And he is so wrapped into what I am singing.
that he puts the bone down. And while he's sitting there just looking at me and taking it all in. Here's girl, Sadie, our other dog, comes along and takes the bone away. Yeah. And he doesn't even notice it.
He's just with me. Um What do you think happened after that? I kept singing about what a good boy he was. I went right to him and I loved him up, and he didn't care about the bone. He was happier then and there without it because he had something so much better.
Yeah. There you go. Yeah. And that that is Phenomenal wisdom. Right there, and that you could learn from a Basset Hound.
Isn't Dudley a Bassett Hound? No, Dudley's actually a Lapperdoodle. Oh, okay. You know. Uh the point is that uh you know that whole title about uh phrase to soothe the savage beast.
Um just as Dudley was was uh Wrapped in his attention, you and I, when we praise God, God does something in that. To soothe us and help us. It is a means of grace. and we are blessed when we pray and when we sing to him. I can't even begin to tell you how I wish I'd understood that.
concept or th you know thought process a long time ago. I I you know, I I guess we did a show years ago on it, or you it's certainly something you have taught for years. And the more I have adopted it, the more I realized it Oh my goodness, when I start to feel Whatever that is, I've clearly not hearing Jesus' voice, but other voices. Then I turn to that. And I have Um Certain things that I say to the Lord, you know, I'll exalt you, I'll praise you.
And, and, I, I praise you every day. You know, I love to say that. Lord, I want to praise you every day. I want to praise you forever. You know, those things.
And when I say that, it does. There's something that's the savage beast inside of Robbie that all of a sudden, you know. I can let go of the bone. It's a beautiful thing. And you know where you see a great example, kind of unexpected, is in Acts 16, where Paul and Silas are thrown into jail in Philippi.
And this is after they've been severely flogged. Luke tells us. And then they're they're put in the stocks, you know, their their wounds haven't been cleaned or anything. And they're sitting there. And they're praying and singing.
hymns to God. And when I think about that, I I think, you know, They were resolved to do that. That wasn't some kind of happy clappy praise time. You know? They were hurting.
And they resolved we are going to keep our bearings in all of this and and keep our focus on what matters most of all. And do you know what happened next? Yeah. The walls came tumbling down. Yeah, man, an earthquake.
And then the interesting thing is that all of this is part of spiritual warfare because the reason they got thrown in was that they had cast out a demon, an unclean spirit, from this. Fortune-telling girl. slave girl who was taken advantage of uh by her owners and then her owners, you know, lose their source of income. They they cause a riot. Paul and Silas are stripped and beaten, and you know.
Throw me into jail. And The interesting thing is that what the demon is saying when she's following them around. For a few days, apparently, because it says basically when Paul finally had enough. Uh it says these men are telling you the way to be saved.
So this is full on, very clear. Spiritual warfare. And after. After the the the earthquake, The jailer then comes in and says, What to them? Do you remember?
What must I do? to be saved.
So there's this whole breakthrough in the spiritual realm that occurs. because of their praise in God. It's beautiful, right? It's one of the great stories. I mean, it just is.
And it o you know, and as you were saying, they were compelled to, but I I got to believe, because often I think the reason why I'm turning to it anymore based on obviously from the Bible and the instruction of it, but the Holy Spirit says, Hey, Robbie, you know how in the past You know, it helped you a lot when you praised God.
Well, this might be your opportunity to do that again. Yeah. And it really. Um It it it does. And as you say, it's spiritual warfare.
That's part of what you're experiencing. And the idea is we want to hear from Jesus. We don't want to hear from all these other noises. That even though it seemed like that girl was saying something better, Paul knew this was not coming from Jesus. Yeah, that's probably not the kind of announcement they wanted, you know.
It's interesting. This is like Israel's armies putting God's praises up front. as they head into battle. You know, God. pours more grace into us.
as we resolve, we're going to do this. I'm going to praise him. You know, I'm going to keep my head, whatever the circumstance. And it's basically like God refilling our tanks of joy. This would be a good time to pray.
All right. Let's do it. Lord. Help us. Help us to go there.
I think of what Paul wrote, the church in Philippi ten years later. Rejoice in the Lord always. Same place. people that might have been converted because of what happened then. Or Help us.
help us to know. that we will have breakthroughs. as we praise you. In Jesus' name. Oh man.
Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
