Prebyterian Devotions: The Power of Prayer

How does prayer work? Prayer allows us to step back from our problems and let God step in to help us.

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

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There’s a lot of anxiety going around these days. People are afraid of catching the flu; communities are dreading the closure of businesses; and even churches are seeing their resources diminishing. With no political, economic, or even spiritual stability, now is the time to seek God in prayer. It’s worked in the past, when things were a lot worse. So, instead of being fearful and anxious, let’s try to become more faithful and prayerful.

Presenting our requests to God gives us an opportunity to voice our concerns and externalize our anxieties. If we bottle up our fears inside us, we will experience undue internal pressure and a lot of stress. Prayer gives us the chance to release the tension and place our anxieties before God. Remember the old saying: a burden shared is a burden halved.

Realizing that we cannot control things around us enables us to ask God for help. We are not spiritual supermen or superwomen. We don’t have the capacity to be able to do everything ourselves. Recognizing God’s sovereignty over our lives can release us from trying to solve the world’s problems. We can only handle what God has potentially given us to handle. Everything else is in His domain.

Asking God for help in prayer is a great act of faith. When we pray, we actually respect God and His power. We understand that we are finite creatures in need of an infinite God. By praying, we give God His place in our lives and put Him at the center of all things.

Yielding to God’s will in prayer frees us from our fears. We have faith that God will work out everything for the common good. God may say “no” or “not now” to us, but at least He will have answered our prayers. Surrendering ourselves to His wisdom and will is a sincere act of faith, service, and love. It also calms our spirits, for we know that whatever transpires, it is God’s will.

Encouraging others to pray with and for us has a communal blessing that strengthens our spirits. Yesterday, a friend sent me an email with the following quote from C. S. Lewis, ‘prayer does not change things, it changes me.’ When we solicit other people’s prayers, we are changing inside. Instead of isolating ourselves and internalizing our troubles, we allow other people to know of our concerns and to seek their prayerful support. This is one of the greatest benefits of belonging to a Christian community.

Requesting God’s help, recognizing our frailty, and realizing that prayer is a powerful way to change our circumstances releases us from being overwhelmed by our fears, worries, and cares. It’s a spiritual way of stepping back from the problem and letting God step in to help us. We allow God to be God and we permit ourselves to be His children.

Prayer: Lord God, we thank You that we can freely come to You in prayer at any time, with any problem, and in any situation. We know that You hear our cries for help from our hearts and souls. Ease our anxieties and calm our fears. Listen to our petitions and allow us to hear Your answers. In Christ’s Holy Name, we thankfully pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Presbyterian Devotions: Community Calamity

Ezekiel 7:26 Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders.

I cannot think of a more terrifying situation for a community of faith to be in. Ezekiel’s ranting about the loss of vision, teaching, and counsel reflects a time when the people of God were in absolute disarray. Their land was about to be overtaken and their people enslaved yet again. The political leaders could not parley with their enemies. God seemed to be absent from the whole situation and the religious leaders had no message of hope to give to the people.

As you know, faithful readers, I worry a lot about the National Church. I’m concerned about the lack of vision and leadership, sound teaching and spiritual counsel. We seem to be heading down into a dead end and even although we can see it, we don’t want to accept it. It’s as if we’re in some sort of huge spiritual denial and we don’t have the savvy to turn around and head back in God’s direction.

Recently, I’ve also been thinking about the wee church that I serve. It’s constantly growing, full of new ideas and people. We’ve been through some setbacks, but God always seem to lead us to something better and bigger. I just wish that our National Church would do the same. If a wee church like Erin can keep growing, there must be something that we’re doing that is right in God’s eyes compared to what’s happening nationally.

That’s why we’re entering into a new phase at Erin. We want to keep growing spiritually and numerically. We want to influence our community and make an impact for God’s Kingdom. We want to continue putting Christ at the center of who we are, what we do, and how we practice our faith. It’s not that we’re perfect, holy, or far superior than those around us – far from it. We’re just trying to please Jesus and help others experience that self-same joy of serving the Lord.

So this morning, we pray for a prophetic voice and vision to be heard and seen in our national Church. We pray for sound spiritual teaching to be placed before the people. And we ask that the counsel of all the elders across the church will emerge from being focused and centered on Christ. Otherwise the terrifying prophecy of Ezekiel could be our National Church’s ultimate destiny.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the blessings that You have given to our wee church. Thank You for the vision of things to come, the teaching of the truth, and the wise counsel of our elders. Help other wee churches in other places begin to experience the same, so that Your Name may be truly honored and glorified, praised and adored. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.