When my husband, Tom, was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, I began to phone family members. My sister and her husband came right away to be with me, and we prayed as we waited. Tom’s sister listened to my worried voice on the phone and quickly said, “Cindy, can I pray with you?” When my pastor and his wife arrived, he too prayed for us (James 5:13-16).

Oswald Chambers wrote: “We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defence. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.”

Prayer is simply a conversation with God, spoken knowing that God hears and answers. Prayer should not be a last option. In His Word, God encourages us to talk with Him in prayer (Phil. 4:6). We also have His promise that when “two or three are gathered together” in His name, He will be “there in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20).

As we see the power of the Almighty, our first response to problems will be to cry out to Him. Nineteenth century pastor Andrew Murray said: “Prayer opens the way for God Himself to do His work in us and through us.”

Author

Cindy Hess Kasper

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Our Daily Bread