Tap into the unlimited power of prayer
April 19, 2005
If someone came to you on a street corner and said, “Here’s a $100 bill for you. If you meet me here tomorrow morning, I will give you another.” So, you take the $100 bill and say in your heart, “Can that really happen again?”
The next morning, same time, same place, you show up just to see if it was a fluke or not. Sure enough, that person shows up just like the day before and hands you another $100 bill and says, “I like meeting with you.” You do this everyday for two weeks with the same result.
Now, a question: Would you continue to show up? YOU BETCHA! Why would you NOT show up? But, this is exactly what happens when we meet with the Lord Jesus every morning in prayer. We show up, He blesses our life — and He wants to do it everyday.
Consider the absolute power of prayer we see in the Word of God. Moses prayed and three million slaves went free; Joshua prayed and the sun stood still; Gideon prayed and with just 300 men he defeated the Midianite hordes; Samson prayed and destroyed more Philistines in his death than in his whole life; David prayed and killed Goliath, the giant, with a sling and a stone; Elijah prayed and there was no rain for three-and-a-half years; he prayed again and the rain resumed; Isaiah prayed and an angel from God killed 185,000 Assyrian troops surrounding Jerusalem.
Much closer to home, if I were there, in person, with you right now and said, “Write on this piece of paper answers to specific prayer that God has given you.” Could you fill a page? There is no question about it – you could, right? When we reflect on exact, specific answers to prayer we have thousands of them don’t we? Then, why don’t we show up to meet Him every morning and continue to receive these blessings? He promises to show us GREAT things. Listen to this call to you and me: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”(Jer. 33:3)
We are in desperate days where we need to see God do great and mighty things in our world, country, churches and our lives. Let me encourage you to FIRST, meet with the Lord Jesus every morning personally. He will bless your life. SECOND, let me encourage you to join other Christians in our National Day of Prayer (www.nationaldayofprayer.org) being celebrated May 5, an event launched by the First Continental Congress in 1775 and recognized officially as a national day by Congress and Harry Truman in 1952. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, to set the annual observance on the first Thursday in May.
For those of you in the eastern half of the state, there is another observance of intercessory prayer called “Global Day of Prayer” that will be conducted in Busch Stadium in the heart of downtown St. Louis from 4-6 p.m., May 15. More details are at: www.globaldayofprayer.com.
You might want to call a whole night of prayer in your church that goes from sundown to early morning. When I was pastor, our church did this once every three months. We prayed for different, specific prayer “targets” every hour. These included our immediate family members, personal lists of lost people we were burdened for, our church, our church staff, extended family members, government leaders at all levels, future ministries, missions and more. At first, our people didn’t think it was possible to pray for this long a time. But at the top of each hour, we would sing, then read selected Bible verses and then return to our specific prayer target of the hour we were in. We would pray in groups of three or four persons. Time went by so fast, we felt we always needed more time.
There are multitudes of reasons that can keep us from praying. Satan and his legions will do anything to keep us from tapping into this essential source of power. Can I suggest just one possible reason why we don’t meet him every morning? We may have selfish appetites that crowd out our hunger for God. Sort of like the little boy who was overheard praying, “Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time like I am.”
Pray without ceasing.