The Lord our Banner

 "And Moses built an altar and named it "The Lord is My Banner."  (Jehovah-Nissi)

At the Battle of Rephidim Moses held up his staff in his hands to the Lord.  It is the same staff that he used for many of the miracles that were performed in Egypt.  They soon learned that as long as Moses held up the staff the Israelites would be victorious over the Amalekites, but when Moses stopped holding up the staff due to fatigue, they would start losing. So thus they concluded, "we have to keep this staff in the air toward the Lord until the battle is over and we have victory."  The solution was that they had a couple of men help Moses.  

This story illustrates the balance between work and prayer.  We need to pray as we work.  The staff symbolizes keeping our our hearts and minds toward prayer, and as the Israelite army fights in the valley illustrates the actual living and working.  As long as we pray, we see victory but when we get weary and stop praying we start to see defeat.  As we live and work we need to keep our heart in a ready place to pray.  Moses named the place for all of us to remember Jehovah-Nissi meaning "the Lord my Banner".  As we acknowledge God in all our ways we experience His power.  A prayerless person is a powerless person, while a prayerful person is powerful.