prayer

No ocean can hold it back.

No river can overtake it.

No whirlwind can go faster.

No army can defeat it.

No law can stop it.

No distance can slow it.

No disease can cripple it.

No force on earth is more powerful or effective than the power of prayer.

The words of a certain Linn Carlson. Unsolicited mail, appearing today in my 'Inbox'.

A reminder of just how it is that things and people are changed: by the power of God, accessed and released by the prayers of his people.

You can only speak of 'the power of prayer' when it's this that you mean.

The power is that of God. Prayer is the means by which we lay hold of that power.

I pray in regard to every situation I'll be in each day. I need to be sure of the presence of God, wherever I am, whatever it is that I'm doing. I need to be sure of the power of God, at large and at work in the lives of the people I'm with.

That happens not by magic but by grace.

And I need it as much in all of the admin stuff, as in everything else that I do. The letters I write, the e-mails I send, all the preparation that there is to do in feeding this people God's truth. The women and men on whom I call - some coming, some going: some grieving, some growing: some faltering, some flowing.

People in the range of human need. And all of the time I'm seeking the presence, the power of God. Circumstances start to change. Hardened hearts are softened. Glacier like resistance to the living God begins to show small hints of gentle warming and a melting of the coldness that there's been.

This afternoon and evening I've been seeing all sorts of different folk.

In varying situations. None easy at all. None that come in any way that's 'natural' to myself. Most of them I wouldn't choose to enter if I had the choice.

But I don't have that choice. I go where the Lord directs me each day and where the needs demand. And I only go with any sort of 'confidence' on the basis that I can pray in advance for the presence and power of God.

Can I point to the fruit of such prayer today? Not really.

I've been praying each day for a man who's still young and who's struggled with illness for many a month - I call by on his home and I learn that he's worse than ever.

I call by on a person who's been at our worship just once. The circumstances there are hard. I'm longing that here in this home there'll be peace and delight in the knowledge of Christ. Today there are tears.

I call on a home where there's been in the past a bereavement and now there's been illness as well. I can't bring a dead person back and I can't stop the troubles which age and infirmity bring. I can only pray that my being there at all brings a sense of the presence of God, a peace and a hope he instils by his grace in their hearts.

I call on a person who's taken a step which has all sorts of ripples in terms of the effect that it has. I can't take back the stone that's been dropped: and I can't prevent the ripples. It feels more like a damage limitation sort of thing, but I'm praying that those ripples as they roll on out will somehow be translated into energy from God and prove to be creative in the end.

That's just a sample of some of the people I've seen. Some of the homes where I've prayed in advance that God would be present and God would be working in power.

The fruit of our praying is not always seen at all. Sometimes only later. Sometimes, maybe, only in eternity.

Our prayers are offered in faith. We don't have to see to believe.

We simply learn to pray, and access through Christ the limitless power of God.

No army can defeat it.
No law can stop it.
No distance can slow it.
No disease can cripple it.

When I'm down on my knees, I can still always pray!