This is Stu Epperson from the Truth Talk Podcast, connecting current events, pop culture, and theology, and we're so grateful for you that you've chosen the Truth Podcast Network.
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Anytime, 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.
We're glad you joined us today. We're talking about prayers for the dog days. That's just not just about the dog days of summer, although that's a pretty funny phrase.
So, James, go ahead and take it from there. Yeah, well, Robby, you were just telling me that it was 100 degrees when you went into the studio today, and man, I mean, the dog days of summer refer to the hottest part of the year, but what's not so well known is why they're called that at all. Believe it or not, that goes back to the ancient Greeks and Romans who called the months of July and August the dog star days, and that was when the dog star Sirius, which is the most visible star in Caduceus Major, the constellation known as the Big Dog, was called the closest to the earth, and they thought that along with the sun, that really heated things up. So, it's the time of the year when summer hits hard and people are tired and cranky and, you know, that's why it's called the dog days. So you could say that prayers for the dog days are, you know, prayers for strength?
Yeah, yeah, that's it, exactly. Prayers for those days when you've got nothing left, you know, when you need the extra strength that only God can give, and if you think about it, there are a lot of prayers like that and a lot of talk about that in the Bible. Yeah, there really are, and God is referred to as our strength again and again. One of my favorites on that is Psalm 46.1, God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in trouble. Yeah, or think about Isaiah 40-31, those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. God wouldn't have so many references to his being our strength in his word if he didn't want us to just know this and avail ourselves of it. Just think about David standing up to Goliath and saying, You come against me with a sword and a spear, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of heaven's armies.
So that's his strength there. Or remember Nehemiah's prayer when he was tasked with rebuilding this broken wall around Jerusalem and, you know, those around him are trying to discourage him. And in Nehemiah 6.9, he says, But I prayed, strengthen my hands. So, you know, that's a prayer for a dog day. I mean, there are so many references in Scripture about this.
It's just too many to mention in this short time, but you can't miss the point. Yeah, I love that because I found this is something God really does for us if we ask him. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Jesus tells us that we should ask. In one place in Luke 21, when he talks about the last days, he says specifically to pray for strength. And the word that he uses means for a strength that prevails, that really gets you through, that overcomes.
Like the believers in, you know, in the end times, in the Revelation, who overcame. That's what we're talking about. Yeah, and we really need that now more than ever, don't we? Yeah, we really do. When you think about it, we get so distracted. I mean, we have it easy in so many ways today. We have technology that makes things happen at the snap of our fingers, air conditioning to keep us cold or keep us cool, you know.
Maybe we're not as tough as previous generations that had to wait things out and sweat things out. As a result, when we encounter circumstances that require perseverance and patience, man, we can get discouraged and just want to give up. And that giving up can mean running to things that are not God, taking comfort in lesser things, and little by little just losing our hope in him. When Jesus tells us to pray for strength, it's really a prayer that will stay close to God because that's what matters more than anything else. Yeah, that's true on so many levels because how can we draw strength from God if he isn't our main source?
I mean, it goes back to the whole I am the vine and you are the branches thing that Jesus talked about. Yeah, yeah. And I think a good way to go after this is to pray, help me to love you, Lord. Not just give me strength to go through this, you know, whatever I'm going through in the moment, but to run to him and just be his. Again, like you said, what else have you got when everything is falling apart?
And what we want is to make it so that he is the main thing when everything isn't falling apart, you know, when everything is fine. Because then when we encounter him, or when we encounter those other times, then we will have the strength to make it through. Yeah, I mean, that makes me think of what so many went through during the COVID crisis, where they had to lock down and couldn't even go to church and some stopped going to church altogether, even when they could. And I think, you know, there was a real temptation to just seek our own comfort.
Yeah, that's exactly right. I've been reading a really good book about this lately, from your friend John Eldredge, his book Resilience, which is, it's really insightful. And he talks about how in the last days, Scripture says there'll be a great falling away. In other words, people will just get distracted by other things.
But again, it's like pulling the plug on unreal power in our lives. So listen to how he describes this. He says, when you're tired, when you're beat up, you just want relief, a bag of chips, a bottle of wine to lie on the couch and binge on Netflix. Jesus urges us to be on our guard, so that your hearts will not be weighed down, praying that you will have strength to escape all these things, Luke 21.
So Jesus says there is a means of escape, and wouldn't you love an escape from all the madness? Okay then, let's make the choice, he writes, right now, to receive it. So, don't keep us waiting, how do we do that? Okay, he writes, it starts with being what I like to call single-hearted. We are single-hearted when we cherish God above all things. We love him in the longing for relief, which is where we are vulnerable. We love him in the longing for life to be good again. Scripture promises that God will come to the help of those who are single-hearted.
Then he quotes 2 Chronicles 16, 9. The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. So I think a good place for us to land is today is just, Lord, help me to be fully committed to you, help me to love you more, to love you most of all, because I know that when I do that, you'll be my strength.
I think that's, you know, that's really what it's all about. Oh, I do love that, and what a perfect place to pray. So, Lord, we do ask that you would help us to be whole-hearted and single-hearted, that you would fill our hearts with this realization that when we are getting to that point, we do have someplace to turn, and just like a check engine light flashing on our dashboard is telling us, turn to God, pray, pray, pray. Lord, help us to see that and help us to do it. In Jesus' name I pray. 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. This is the Truth Network.
