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tomb. H e walked to the entrance,
lifted u·p his eyes and prayed, " Fa–
ther, [ thank you that you have
heard me. 1 knew that you always
hear me, but 1 said this for the
benefit of the people standing here,
that they may believe that you sent
me" (John 11 :41-42, N IV) .
Have you ever thought about
how powerful- but how. short–
that prayer was? As a result of a
prayer that )asted 1
O
seconds, a
dead man walked out of a tomb,
living proof of the power of God .
And the power of prayer.
But did you notice what Chris t
said in that prayer? "Father, 1
thank you that you have heard me."
This wasn't the first time Christ
prayed about this fantas tic miracle.
Christ had already prayed to his
Father diligently about this matter.
After all it was the final public mir–
acle he would perform. Christ was
close to God because of constant
prayer. " 1 know that you hear me
a lways," he said ( J ohn 11 :42).
Knowing his time had come, he
could step for th for the final days
of his life on earth with full confi–
dence God would be with him.
Elijah and the Prophet s o f B aal
Another example of the power of
prayer is Elijah's confrontation
with the prophets of Baal at Mount
Carmel. God's true religion had
almost been lost. Even Elijah
thought he was tbe only one left
obeying God (God showed him
there were 7,000 others, though).
But for the most part the nation
was given over to fal se worship.
Elijah fi nally gathered 850 of the
pagan priests and prophets to see
who could call tire from heaven to
consume an altar.
Of course there was no such
thing as Baal- not as a living enti–
ty. Elijah knew that. But the pries ts
of Baal thought there was. So tbey
began early in the morning to cry
out to their nonexis tent god. All
morning they cried and chanted.
Finally about noon they leapt on
the altar to scream to their deity.
Nothing happened.
Throughout the afternoon they
continued their wailing. They even
resor ted to slashing their bodies
hoping thei r "god " would see and
hear. They shouted themselves
hoarse, but nothing happened. You
8
can read tbe enti re s tory in 1 Kings
18:17-40.
Late in the afternoon, after wait–
ing through the hours of pagan
ritu a l, incantation a nd frantic
screaming, El ijah stepped forth to
prove who the great God is.
Elijah prayed to the Eterna), ' 'O
Lord, God o f Abraham, Isaac and
Is rael, Jet it be known today that
you are God in Israel and that 1 am
you r servant and bave done all
these things at your command .
Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so
these peoplc will know that you, O
Lord, are God, and that you are
turning their hearts back again"
(l
Kings 18:36-37, NIY).
After a prayer lasting no longer
You should not wait
for that last moment. You
should establish
and maintain a
·el
ose
personal relationship with
God, now.
than 20 seconds, God, responding
to E lijah's prayer, consumed not
only the sacrifice on the altar, but
the wood , stones, dust and water in
the trencb.
That 's the power of prayer.
In both these examples, the
power in these short prayers was
the result of daily prayer and con–
tact with God.
Danie l 's E xample
To further illus trate the impor–
tance of prayer, let's turn to the
example of another well-known ser–
van t of God- Da niel. You may
remember, Daniel was a young J ew
deported in the days of the Babylo–
nian captivity of J udah.
In Babylon, Daniel had risen to a
prominent position. But in late 539
B.C., the Babylonian Empire was
conquered by the Medo-Persians.
The Persian ruler set Daniel over
all the other princes in the kingdom
(Dan. 6:1-2). The Persian princes
were enraged. Tbey tried to find
fau lt wi th Daniel , but could find
none. They fi nally saw the only way
to get at Daniel was through bis
devotion to God.
They tricked the king into signing
a law that forbade worshiping any
other god, save the king himself.
Daniel had worshiped God
through the entire Ba by lo nia n
domination . H e would not s top
now- even under penalty of death.
What did Daniel do?
Read it in Dan iel 6:10: " He went
into his house; and his windows
being open in his chamber toward
J erusalem, he kneeled upon his
knees three times a day, a nd
prayed, and gave thanks before bis
God, as he did aforetime."
Daniel had prayed reg ul a rly.
Every day. Three times a day. He
wou1d not s top that vital part of his
day no matter what the penalty.
If
you remember the story, the
j ealous governo r s and pr i nces
insisted the king throw Daniel to
the lions as a penalty for not calling
on the king alone as god. lt was the
law-even the king couldn't change
it. But God who had heard Daniel
every day, heard him once again.
While the Bible doesn' t record any
special prayer of Dan iel at thís
time, you can be sure Da niel
prayed fervently. Wouldn't you?
An angel was sent (verse 22),
and the lions didn't even scratch
Daniel.
That' s the power of prayer. Not
the desperate last minute, " God
save me" prayer. But the result of
constant contact with God who will
hear you every day.
What About Yo u ?
Maybe you will now say, " 1 wish 1
could pray like that." Perhaps you
really want to pray-every day,
even three times a day. But you just
don't know how. You wonder·what
to pray about. Or how long to pray.
Or where to pray.
Maybe you have had thc experi–
ence of deciding you would start to
pray. But whcn you knelt down to
pray, you felt alone. Like you were
just talking into thín air.
J ust about evcryone who has tried
to pray has had the same feeling.
Throughout C hrist 's ministry the
disciples saw Jesus separate himself
from them to pray. Sometimes he
went a litt le distance away from
camp. Other times he went out to a
mountainsíde. Still other times he
The PLAIN TRUTH