On this day in 1727, two weeks after the ‘Moravian pentecost’ of 13th August, the inhabitants of Herrnhut started a day-and-night prayer meeting that would continue for over 100 years. What they did (and all that flowed from that) is fairly well known, but why they did it deserves some further investigation. In their own words:
“We have been considering how necessary it is, for the well-being of the church, to keep constant watch over her – the church still being young in years and having an old enemy in satan, who rests neither by day nor by night. To this end we have resolved to ignite a free-will offering of intercession in our town, which can burn day and night.”
In other words, they expected to find themselves in a spiritual battle and wanted to be prepared.
Some spiritual battles seem to be common to every era, and others are very specific and personal. But it’s worth asking what the key spiritual battlegrounds of our culture and generation might be. Here are 3 that are worth thinking about:
- Attention. When Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, said “my main competitor is sleep” he was admitting a simple truth. Modern information industries depend entirely on getting and holding your attention, so that they can monetise it. The content on your phone is paid for by the hours and minutes you spend focussing on it. Instead of on Christ.
- Truth. We live in age where everyone is allowed and expected to have their own truth. This isn’t in itself a threat to the gospel (which is always true yet also always has to become personal), but it does raise a vital question: is Jesus your truth, or does someone or something else occupy that ground?
- Identity. We are constantly offered multiple visions of our identity, and are told that these should define who we are and how we think and feel. But in Christ there can be only one primary identity: follower of Jesus and child of God. Everything else has to take second place, maybe describing where we come from but having no hold on where we are headed.
You Have My Attention. You Are My Truth. I Identify As Yours.
These are the battle cries of a generation who know how the enemy will try to destroy their relationship with Christ, and are determined to write a different story. C’mon!
Image: MS Copilot AI