A Word to the Wise: How Prayer Fights Back Against Trouble (Kie Bowman)
Most Americans pray, and many pray every day; but what do we pray about? Not surprisingly, according to Lifeway research, 74 percent of Americans pray for their own needs and difficulties. Predictably, most people pray for their own problems, since troubles and challenges are common to everyone.
Of course, over and above the challenges most of us face, each of us has a long list of personal troubles unique to us. Our relationships are fragile, we worry too much, and we struggle with personal temptations. In light of all this trouble, what should we do? In reality, there are only two ways to face troubles: God’s way or your way, and God’s way always involves prayer.
Most Americans pray, and many pray every day; but what do we pray about? Not surprisingly, according to Lifeway research, 74 percent of Americans pray for their own needs and difficulties. Predictably, most people pray for their own problems, since troubles and challenges are common to everyone.
Of course, over and above the challenges most of us face, each of us has a long list of personal troubles unique to us. Our relationships are fragile, we worry too much, and we struggle with personal temptations. In light of all this trouble, what should we do? In reality, there are only two ways to face troubles: God’s way or your way, and God’s way always involves prayer.
A praying king’s trouble
In Jerusalem about 2,900 years ago, King Jehoshaphat knew two things: He knew he was in trouble, and he knew prayer moves the hand that moves the world. His problem was that he had a small window of time to prepare before he faced an oncoming Transjordan coalition of ferocious soldiers, representing multiple enemy armies and kingdoms.
King Jehoshaphat had never been so strategically unprepared or logistically overwhelmed by military power in his entire life. He had only one real option – he prayed. His prayer was straightforward, “…we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chronicles 20:12).
No believer has to passively surrender to trouble. In prayer we can fight back!
Desperate prayer fights trouble
Have you ever prayed desperately for God’s intervention?
The question is, therefore, are you desperate enough in prayer? Desperate prayer demands a humility that repudiates our personal confidence, strength, intelligence, denominational advantages, or any other perceived leverage that masquerades as the primary answer to the dilemmas only prayer can address.
Are we willing to allow ourselves to look weak in the eyes of others in order to experience God’s help?
Dependent prayer fights trouble
One reason we resist desperate prayer may be because we are secretly relying on other sources of help. Our church governance models, our comfort with the status quo, or even our fear of extremes may temper our passion for a supernatural intervention. Long-time pastor and Georgia Baptist leader Larry Wynn may have accurately assessed our unwillingness to depend upon God when he recently said, “The church in Acts handled in a prayer meeting what we try to handle in a business meeting.”
Depending upon God in prayer is not a small victory. Instead, in dependence we actually resist and overcome our most basic urges toward sin, and we look more like Jesus.
Desperate and dependent prayer obviously appears to many secular Americans like the weakest available response to trouble – but it’s not, because God hears prayer.
You’re not helpless in difficulties as long as God is the hearer of prayer.
Kie Bowman, How Prayer Fights Back Against Trouble (Excerpts from BP article, 11.21.24)
Here are Four Things to Know this Week:
1. Be Careful Not to Let Self-Assessments Harm Your Personal Development (Admired Leadership Field Notes)
2. Why We Did Not Need an Associational Office (George Bullard, The Baptist Paper)
3. How Often Should You Provide Training for Group Leaders? (Ken Braddy, Lifeway)
4. When Offenses Come – How to Forgive and Move On (Scott Hubbard)
May you and your family have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Your servant in Christ,
Ray
In Jerusalem about 2,900 years ago, King Jehoshaphat knew two things: He knew he was in trouble, and he knew prayer moves the hand that moves the world. His problem was that he had a small window of time to prepare before he faced an oncoming Transjordan coalition of ferocious soldiers, representing multiple enemy armies and kingdoms.
King Jehoshaphat had never been so strategically unprepared or logistically overwhelmed by military power in his entire life. He had only one real option – he prayed. His prayer was straightforward, “…we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chronicles 20:12).
No believer has to passively surrender to trouble. In prayer we can fight back!
Desperate prayer fights trouble
Have you ever prayed desperately for God’s intervention?
The question is, therefore, are you desperate enough in prayer? Desperate prayer demands a humility that repudiates our personal confidence, strength, intelligence, denominational advantages, or any other perceived leverage that masquerades as the primary answer to the dilemmas only prayer can address.
Are we willing to allow ourselves to look weak in the eyes of others in order to experience God’s help?
Dependent prayer fights trouble
One reason we resist desperate prayer may be because we are secretly relying on other sources of help. Our church governance models, our comfort with the status quo, or even our fear of extremes may temper our passion for a supernatural intervention. Long-time pastor and Georgia Baptist leader Larry Wynn may have accurately assessed our unwillingness to depend upon God when he recently said, “The church in Acts handled in a prayer meeting what we try to handle in a business meeting.”
Depending upon God in prayer is not a small victory. Instead, in dependence we actually resist and overcome our most basic urges toward sin, and we look more like Jesus.
Desperate and dependent prayer obviously appears to many secular Americans like the weakest available response to trouble – but it’s not, because God hears prayer.
You’re not helpless in difficulties as long as God is the hearer of prayer.
Kie Bowman, How Prayer Fights Back Against Trouble (Excerpts from BP article, 11.21.24)
Here are Four Things to Know this Week:
1. Be Careful Not to Let Self-Assessments Harm Your Personal Development (Admired Leadership Field Notes)
2. Why We Did Not Need an Associational Office (George Bullard, The Baptist Paper)
3. How Often Should You Provide Training for Group Leaders? (Ken Braddy, Lifeway)
4. When Offenses Come – How to Forgive and Move On (Scott Hubbard)
May you and your family have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Your servant in Christ,
Ray
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