If you didn’t race to see War Room the week it was released and now aren’t sure you want to – Are you wondering why waste your precious quiet hours after bedtime on anything other than Hallmark’s countdown to Christmas?

Let me share my thoughts on War Room as a movie enthusiast, Christian, and mom who rarely gets to watch a movie in its entirety.

3 Reasons Christians Should Watch – WAR ROOM

1. It is Christ centered.

If you’re choosing between this and reading the Bible, pick the Bible!

But if you’re choosing between this and Scandal or Walking Dead, then put your focus on things worthy of attention (Phil. 4:8)

Mainstream media has become a toxic waste dump with more and more plot lines that are anti-God, portraying Christians as hateful hypocrites.

So, if you’re going to watch something, and most of us do . . .

Watch something that builds God up, that puts His name in our homes and on our tongues.

The last few weeks, my daughter and I have been watching Little House on the Prairie. At least the first seasons, most of the theology is sound. The characters face real struggles between believers, with sin, are counseled against pride and revenge. God and Jesus are mentioned regularly.

And I’m blown away that this show used to be on secular network television!

If we want more Christian media, we have to support Christian media. War Room is produced by Christians, the actors are Christians, the plot and story line focus on God and prayer.

2. Prayer matters

While many Christians struggle with some of the contrivances of the film,  (i.e. life is not often so neatly solved, and God doesn’t always answer our prayers in an easy or painless way), we can all suspend reality some for an overwhelmingly positive message about the importance of prayer. Jesus used fictional stories to instruct and inspire, called parables.

• Many new believers considered prayer important for the first time.
• Many non-believers heard God’s message through this film and Christian discussions.
• Many Christians renewed their focus on prayer after this film.

I went home and made a WAR ROOM, did you?

And I’ve personally seen amazing answers to prayer in my own life. In our adoption journey, I literally wept and prayed about waiting for a child. When I finally prayed, “God it is your timing and I trust you. I will wait and accept your answer, even if it is NO” – I got a call less than two hours later we had been matched with a baby girl.

Sometimes God works in fantastical ways because He wants us to see miracles still happen.

3. It is GOOD.

All the main characters were convincing and human. It’s about a marriage struggling to survive modern life, a necessary message in our quick-to-quit society.

I laughed out loud a lot, like coke-up-the-nose laughter.

I cried. I went with the young woman I mentor in Christ, and we held hands, tears running down our cheeks through the ending.

Would all these events fit realistically into one person’s life within a few weeks? Probably not, but I felt much of the theology was sound, the movie was wholesome and truly entertaining in a time when finding both is nearly impossible.

And any movie that puts God and prayer at the center of the story is one I’ll be watching, what about you?