Salvation Assured THE GREAT MOUNTAIN OF PRAYER
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. Col. 1:9.
If at any time in your life you've heard someone say, I'm praying for you, and I'm going to keep on praying for you, that's hard to forget! I believe in the effectiveness of prayer as a great mountain to keep us from sliding to perdition. If I wanted to be lost, I'd have to forget those moments as a child when I stumbled into my father's study at any time of the day or night and found him on his knees, and I knew at least one person he was praying for. Me! I read about a man named Peter. Jesus had said to him, "Satan wants to have you, but I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail." And suddenly, when Peter was cursing and swearing by the fire, those words came back. "I have prayed for you."
We had a long discussion in a midweek meeting one time, trying to figure out whether prayer was effective and how it worked. Finally we said, "Why don't we pray? Why don't we pray for an impossible case?" It just so happened that on that day I had been to see a returned missionary who had become discouraged. He and his family were bitter, and everyone knew it. As I left that day, the man had said, "And don't pray for us, either!" His name was heavy on my mind at that meeting that night. I mentioned his name. A number of people knew him. We agreed that we couldn't find a more impossible case. We determined that we would pray every day that month, at home, and every Wednesday night, together, for his family. The following week his house burned down. At prayer meeting, I asked, "What have you people been praying for, anyway?" We prayed again. The next week he lost some valuable piece of equipment he needed in his business. The notice came out in the newspaper. We kept praying. We didn't understand what was going on. The devil? God? Who? All we knew was that at the end of the month, the last Sabbath, as the worship service was beginning, into the church walked this man and his family.
We ought to do more praying. Don't you believe that? We ought to. The prayers of loved ones are a giant mountain that makes it hard for us to be lost.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. Col. 1:9.
If at any time in your life you've heard someone say, I'm praying for you, and I'm going to keep on praying for you, that's hard to forget! I believe in the effectiveness of prayer as a great mountain to keep us from sliding to perdition. If I wanted to be lost, I'd have to forget those moments as a child when I stumbled into my father's study at any time of the day or night and found him on his knees, and I knew at least one person he was praying for. Me! I read about a man named Peter. Jesus had said to him, "Satan wants to have you, but I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail." And suddenly, when Peter was cursing and swearing by the fire, those words came back. "I have prayed for you."
We had a long discussion in a midweek meeting one time, trying to figure out whether prayer was effective and how it worked. Finally we said, "Why don't we pray? Why don't we pray for an impossible case?" It just so happened that on that day I had been to see a returned missionary who had become discouraged. He and his family were bitter, and everyone knew it. As I left that day, the man had said, "And don't pray for us, either!" His name was heavy on my mind at that meeting that night. I mentioned his name. A number of people knew him. We agreed that we couldn't find a more impossible case. We determined that we would pray every day that month, at home, and every Wednesday night, together, for his family. The following week his house burned down. At prayer meeting, I asked, "What have you people been praying for, anyway?" We prayed again. The next week he lost some valuable piece of equipment he needed in his business. The notice came out in the newspaper. We kept praying. We didn't understand what was going on. The devil? God? Who? All we knew was that at the end of the month, the last Sabbath, as the worship service was beginning, into the church walked this man and his family.
We ought to do more praying. Don't you believe that? We ought to. The prayers of loved ones are a giant mountain that makes it hard for us to be lost.
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