There is power in prayer!

by Paul Zabel

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).

Rev. Paul Zabel

Loneliness is often associated with the stillness and solitude of a quiet night when one is all alone. But you can be lonely even in the midst of a great number of people. A young man who had moved to a large city found himself one morning walking in the cold through a crowded city street on his way to the office in which he worked. Even amongst all the people that surrounded him, he felt very lonely. This was his regular morning commute and he had done it many, many times before. But for one reason or other on this particular morning thoughts of home gripped him and the feeling of loneliness so engulfed him that he felt he could hardly bear it. “I wonder what Mom’s doing?” he thought. And then the answer came to him, “At home, it is time for morning devotions. I think I’ll join Mom in prayer.” All at once his loneliness melted away and he felt that power of prayer.

Prayer does do something! Something always happens when we turn our hearts to God. Prayer opens the gates to the understanding and love of our heavenly Father. It gives the Spirit of the Master the chance to fill our hearts with the things that are good in life. It cleanses our minds of cheap and worthless thoughts. Prayers are meant to be sincere and loving.

Even the desire to ask God for help gives a person a different spirit and added hope. When we pray, we link ourselves with the power of our Lord and our God who has created us and who preserves and sustains us. It is His power that can meet and conquer any situation that the world might heap upon us. It is His power that is open to anyone who will tap its great source. It is this power that our Lord can breathe into our very soul. Each day our Lord calls upon us to abide with Him, so that His power might be ours.

Each day our Lord calls upon us to abide with Him, so that His power might be ours.

During our Lord’s ministry upon this earth—and especially during those times when He was drawing closer to the day when He would go to the cross to die there for our sins—His life was constantly in tune with God through prayer. He would go to the quietness of a hilltop and talk in prayer to His Father in heaven. During those times of prayer He gained strength for the ordeals of His journey. He received power to walk steadfastly toward Jerusalem, and the courage to die upon the cross, all the while praying for the forgiveness of His enemies.

May we, too, in all circumstances and no matter where we might find ourselves in the journey of our life, in “prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known unto God!”

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Rev. Paul Zabel is President of the East District of Lutheran Church–Canada.

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