From God comes…
From God comes power.
Often we hear the adage that there is power in prayer. That may be a little misleading because prayer by itself has no power at all. The power actually comes from the One to whom we pray—God!
David understood this. In 1 Chronicles 29:12, he praised God by saying, “Both riches and honor come from You and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might.” In God’s hand is power! We pray to the One who has all the power!
Prayer is not a means of coercing or manipulating God into doing what we want. It is a process of recognizing His power and plan for our lives. We yield our lives and circumstances to the Lord and trust Him to act in His time and in His way. We have faith in on God‘s grace, not only for the outcome of our request, but for the process as well. We can trust God’s wisdom in our situation because we know He loves and cares for us. (John 3:16; 1 Peter 5:7)
For our own growth and edification, God may think it’s best not to give us everything we want instantly. Instead of healing, He might give us strength. Instead of deliverance, He might give us perseverance. Instead of a sparing a loved one’s life, He might give us peace. Instead of winning the lottery, He might give us a job.
How foolish we would be not to continuously access power that is available to us! God wants us to pray. Prayer acknowledges that we know how great God is. Prayer lets God know we depend on Him, not only for our emergencies, but our daily needs. Praying that God’s will be done and not our own shows God that we trust Him!
Trying to rely on our own feeble attempts to produce a desired result is shortsighted. Only God has the power to mend the broken heart of a mother or father whose son has died. Only God has the power to grant peace and calm to someone facing a cancer diagnosis. Only God has the power to give a caregiver strength to deal with a spouse who has Alzheimer’s. Only God has the power to restore a family full of grudges and deep resentment. Only God can grant understanding. Only God can reveal Himself to others.
God has the power, but we have to pray to access it. You might say that a day without prayer is a day without tapping into the power available to us. Life is hard. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need all the power I can get to just make it through one more day!
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“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God…”
~James 1:17 (NLT)
