A devotional on prayer…
I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. - 1 Timothy 2:8
Down through our history our nation’s leaders have carried their plans and hopes to God in prayer. Yet today we have come to a place where we regard prayer in our national life simply as a venerated tradition—or even something to be scorned. We have no sense of coming earnestly to God; we simply use prayer as a formality.
If this nation was born in a meeting based on prayer, some of its most important decisions being made only after careful prayer to God, how can we go on unless there is a renewed emphasis on prayer today?
One of the reasons the United Nations has become so ineffective in handling world situations is that there is no prayer, no recognition of God. At the first meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco, no prayer was lifted to God for guidance and blessing. We were afraid that the atheistic Communists would not like it, so we yielded in deference to them.
I predict that unless the leaders of the nations turn to God in prayer, their best plans will fail, just as did the plans of those who built the tower of Babel.
Christ instructed His followers to pray, both by teaching and by example. So fervent and so direct were His prayers that one time when he had finished praying, His followers turned to Him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). They knew that Jesus had been in touch with God, and they wanted to have such an experience.
Never before in history have we stood in greater need of prayer. Will we be people of prayer for such a time as this?
Thank you!!