22 May 2007 Devotion for Today "The Power of Prayer" Acts 4:23-30

22 May 2007  Devotion for Today  “The Power of Prayer”  Acts 4:23-30

 

            The story is told of a Christian hunter in the Pacific Northwest.  He was hunting in the wilderness when all of a sudden he came across a ferocious grizzly bear.  The hunter fired his weapon but missed, and suddenly he grizzly was in hot pursuit, faster and faster through the woods they ran until the bear knocked the hunter down.  With a ferocious  roar, the grizzly snared about to strike the hunter with his massive paws.  The terrified hunter, prayed to the Lord, “O God, please, please turn this bear into a Christian bear!”  Almost instantly, the grizzly stopped snarling, stopped growling, folded his paws, and bowed his head, and said, “For what we are about to receive, let us be truly thankful! Amen!”

 

            I don’t know that the hunter was too happy upon the answer to his prayer, but in the Book of Acts, we find God’s people together in prayer several times, especially in chapter 4:

            23On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

   " 'Why do the nations rage

      and the peoples plot in vain?

 26The kings of the earth take their stand

      and the rulers gather together

      against the Lord

      and against his Anointed One. 27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."  Acts 4:23-30

            Next week is Pentecost Sunday, and this fourth chapter of the book of Acts is an account of a church at prayer and in it we see those wonderful things that happened as a result.  An earthquake shook the building.  Christians were filled with the Holy Spirit, and boldly these church people began to witness.  There was unity in that church.  The church had great power, and grace was upon every member of that congregation.  May I ask you this morning, have you ever witnessed God’s power released in and through His church?  If you have, there there is no question in my mind that the church must have been a praying church.  Why?  Because the power of God operates through a praying church.       Now there are always problems and challenges to face in any church that seeks to witness of Christ and obey the Great Commission.  The real challenge that faces any church is its prayer life:  getting those members together on their knees before God.  If we are not a praying church, we are just playing church!  When that happens a praying church will become a revived church, a worshipping church, a soul-winning church, a giving church, and a spiritual church.

            May we all become people of such prayer.  Have a blessed day!

 

 

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com

jcrussell@liberty.edu

 

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