Prayer is something that I have talked about in these devotions many times. Monday I spent some time with one of our Hispanic pastors. He was preparing for a church planting meeting, and something that he wrote caught my attention.
As he talked about the problems that the pandemic has brought our churches, he mentioned that our best weapon is prayer. I agree. I have said that many times.
But I was struck again by the simplicity of this truth. Actually I stopped in the middle of what I was doing and was reminded to pray and to remind others to pray.
What is going to change this situation? God is, and our place is to pray. We seek God and trust God only. Then our connection to God is through prayer. This is sharing and listening. This is going deeper than just being part of church or knowing about God. Prayer is the connection and the strength.
Prayer is also the answer of how we impact the situation and how we lead others to have real and lasting hope.
Spend a few minutes reading this passage about prayer.
James 5:13-18 NLT
Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. 14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. 16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
Yes, we have been through hardships. Many people are sick. Our place is to pray and to watch God work in the middle of it all. Prayer is our place to confess our sin to God and to seek healing.
I really like the example of Elijah. He believed God as we should. May our prayers during this pandemic lead us and others to be connected even more to God and have the hope that He alone offers.
Comments