War Room

By S. Michael Houdmann, Got Questions Ministries

Released on August 28, 2015, War Room tells the story of Tony and Elizabeth Jordan. Despite successful careers, a beautiful home, and a wonderful daughter, their marriage is in serious trouble. They argue constantly and don't give their daughter the attention she needs. Tony's eyes are beginning to wander.

Elizabeth, a real estate agent, meets a new client, Miss Clara, who is a dedicated Christian. It doesn't take Clara long to detect that Elizabeth is struggling. After a little prying, Clara discovers to root of Elizabeth's struggle and she offers to help by teaching Elizabeth how to pray and engage in spiritual warfare for her husband, her marriage, and her family.

Once Elizabeth accepts, Clara teaches her the importance of having a "war room," a room in your house that is dedicated to prayer. Elizabeth is uncertain if she can fit prayer into her busy lifestyle, but eventually she is convinced and begins engaging in intensive prayer for her husband.

Spoiler alert — First, Elizabeth's heart is changed as she submits her life to God and begins spending time in prayer. Then, Tony's heart is changed, their marriage is healed, God delivers Tony from some potentially devastating consequences of his previous choices...and they all live happily ever after.

War Room is a family-friendly, interesting, and reasonably entertaining movie. Most importantly, there are no significant biblical/theological errors. My only concern is not with the movie itself, but rather with how some people might misinterpret the movie.

The way War Room presents prayer, the idea is conveyed that if you start praying how Clara instructs, God will immediately answer your prayer requests and solve all your problems. Something like a "two months later..." slide would have been appropriate. I do not think War Room intends to communicate that God always answers fervent prayers quickly, but that is what happens in the movie. Elizabeth starts praying in her War Room and very quickly all of the problems disappear.

Does God sometimes answer prayer requests like that? Absolutely! Does God sometimes make us wait months, years, or even decades before answering our prayers? Yes. Does God sometimes not answer our prayers the way we want Him to? Definitely!

Do some godly Christian wives fervently pray for their husbands only to have them stray, have an affair, and seek divorce? Sadly, yes. And so, my concern is that War Room will cause some people to misunderstand prayer, and when God does not answer their prayers, result in them doubting God, or blaming themselves for the failure of their prayers.

War Room teaches the importance of prayer and reliance upon God (Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). It teaches the reality of spiritual warfare and how we should not be ignorant of the devil's schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11; Ephesians 6:10-17). The idea of a prayer room is straight from the teachings of Jesus (Matthew 6:5-8). For these things, War Room is to be commended.

War Room is definitely worth seeing. If every Christian prayed as fervently as Clara, this world would be a much different place.

Tags: Biblical-Truth | Christian-Life | Family-Life | Reviews-Critiques

Published 9-9-15