Faith Words: Power

On a trip to Dallas last month, we visited with a friend who has been a church planter for many years.  He's involved in other ministries, too, and his love of the Lord takes him to India from time to time.  These trips have opened his eyes to many things over the years but one of the most significant lessons he's learned lately is how to gain power.

Power is something people have craved since the beginning.  We want something, so we try to find the power to get it.  Some people take by force.  Some control by coercion or gentle persuasion.  Some wheedle and whine to achieve their goals.

Somewhere along the way, we began to equate money with power. We've allowed satan to lead us to believe that we can achieve almost anything we want if we have enough money.  In Gone With the Wind, Rhett Butler told Scarlett that generally money can buy happiness or at least some pretty close substitutes.

We've let this mixed up thinking guide us even in the church in America.  We began to think of money as power and prayer as a tool.  We make our plans, spend our money to try to accomplish our goals, then we pray to ask God to bless our plans.  Sometimes all goes well but sometimes we fail miserably and wonder why God didn't show up.

We have it backwards and that's the lesson our friend learned in India.  Maybe they're more spiritually in tune. Maybe their poverty has stripped away all the walls and crutches that get between them and God.  But they know that in truth prayer is power and money is only a tool.

We're taught, especially as Americans, to be self-reliant. But maybe we should learn to be God-reliant.  He tells us often enough in His word to pray first.  I'll bet the verses are already running through your head, even if you don't know exactly where they're found.

     "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." (Philippians 4:6)

     "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."  (Ephesians 6:18)

     "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."  (Romans 12:12)

     "Be joyful always; pray continually."  (I Thessalonians 5:16)

     "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."  (Colossians 4:2)

It's through habit and weakness and deception that we reach for power with our fists full of money rather than our hands folded in prayer.  When we pray, we're going directly to the Source of all things through His beloved Son in His Holy Spirit.  How can that not be powerful? Let's re-learn what our brothers and sisters in Christ in India know:  There is real power in prayer.

In Christ,

Patrice

"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."  (Matthew 21:22)