Ours for the asking: the power of prayer.
It is mind-boggling to think that you can open up
God's omnipotence simply by asking. All of His love and mercy and
grace and wisdom sprinkled everywhere - just by asking.
Our prayer opens the door that was never locked and turns loose all of heaven's
resources to minister to the needs of lost and weary, sad and undone,
hopeless and hapless, folks like us.
The little planet Earth, holding our part of God's creation, is but a
pinpoint in the universe - and He created the whole of it. His power,
wisdom and Presence surround us even as the universe surrounds us.
He chose to give us the gift of free will, and because of that, our
little corner of creation is considerably messed-up. But because we
are His creation, our link to Him can be broken only by ourselves.
We can pick up the prayer phone and call at will and request bounty from
Him, but most of the time when He attempts to reach us (by His Word),
He gets a busy signal.
For eons now we have wandered away, by our own choice. The connection
is broken. But the line is still in place, if one just calls. It's
never out of order at heaven's end.
And what awesome power can be
called into play when we choose to be in touch with our mightly
Creator!
We can call on Him one at a time, or we can make a conference
call. Either way we become partners with Him in forgiving and blessing
and calling men back to Him. And if just one answers, it will have
been worth it, for one soul is worth more than the whole world.
What an unbelievable privilege to join with God in prayer to bless our world.
The very power that created us can be unleashed for our good just for the
asking. Surely the Force that created us is able to care for us
abundantly if we but ask. There is a behind-the-scenes power movement
at work stronger than anything we can see - more real than our world.
"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened so that it cannot save; neither
His ear heavy that He cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated
between you and your God" (Isaiah 59:1).
But the power is still
there - it waits for us to tap into it. The Dynamo that operates the
universe dwarfs our little world, and we would do well to maintain that
perspective.
Pray for enemies
A wonderful way to deal with an enemy is to sneak up behind him and hit
him over the head with a heavy load of prayer: pray for his family, his
welfare, his happiness, his eternal soul's salvation with all the
sincerity of your heart. It'll give a lot of satisfaction because he
can't fight back, and you can go on your way grinning because you had
the last word. After all, you went over his head.
God knows where we are
Think about this: no one is so lost that God doesn't know where he is and
what he's doing. He can call everyone of us by name and read our
hearts all at once. How do I know that? Well, He even knows when a
sparrow falls, and the Lord Himself said we are worth more than many
sparrows, and He's not willing to lose any of us. So the whole thing
is heavily weighted in our favor - all we have to do is ask (and wait
patiently for His answer).
We can invite all the power and presence of God into our lives by
prayer! What a remarkable gift! We can tune into God's grace and forgiveness
and beg to be guided into partnership with Him in blessing the whole
world. It is an almost completely untapped heavenly resource.
Christian, don't forget to pray!
Aline Edson