What did I think about the movie WAR ROOM? Well, I can’t
just give a thumbs up or down on this one because I want to tell you what I
liked about it and what I didn’t like about the movie. If you go see it, watch
for these points and make a few notables of your own:
HONESTY AMONG FRIENDS
I liked how true friends held each other accountable and
called one another out in love. Michael
got in the face of his friend, Tony while they were working out in the gym and
asked him straight up questions, even when he got push back about it. Miss
Clara said to Elizabeth something like “we have an hour together are you going
to sit there and complain about your husband or are we going to talk to God?” That kind of loving honesty made a difference.
PRAYED THE WORD OF
GOD
If we only pray our personal preferences and how we think
things should turn out in our limited knowledge, we’re treating regarding
prayer like a vending machine. Elizabeth
was taught by her mentor to write out scriptures and agree with God’s nature
and will expressed in the Bible when praying.
ROLE OF THE PASTOR
The pastor’s role was very minimal, almost non-existent. I
liked that. At the beginning of the movie, The Jordan family sat through the
Sunday service as nominal Christians, sporadic in attendance, far from God and
going through the motions. They The pastor has a part, but the bigger role goes
to YOU as a Christian friend through the week.
were exposed to God by individuals in their daily
lives (client, friend, mentor, co-worker) in response to believing prayer.
SACRED SPACE
Sure, God is present everywhere. But a designated “war room”
Miss Clara used for years was space the next owner of that home sensed as special
territory. The prayer closet Elizabeth
designated and developed over time was an important part of the story. At a tipping point of courage, Elizabeth
declared her kitchen and dining room and entire home as space where Christ was
King and satan was no longer welcome.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
The viewer could be left with conflict over two issues. #1 “Why
doesn’t God answer my prayers that quickly?” To that I would say, may God give
us patience to walk out in real time what a movie only had 120 minutes to depict.
It’s the movies! #2 “What do you say to the
person who prays like Elizabeth yet doesn’t get the desired outcome like the
movie shows?” That’s a hard one. It helps to remember that individuals still
have a free will to choose. It happened that the characters in this story
yielded to God’s appeal to them in response to believing prayer. Here’s the win for any Christian who wars in
prayer. Anytime we draw nearer to God in
prayer, that right there is the win for us!
Sometimes the outcome isn’t what we want. Sometimes it’s not what God
wanted. And when it is not, we still
win because we’ve gained a relationship with God in prayer that helps us walk
out whatever the circumstances that are in our story.
Bottom line, I loved WAR ROOM and hope you go see it while
it’s still in the theaters to give support for more movies with a message!
