Magnificent Prayer #44
Magnificent Prayer #44
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
Proverbs 25:2
A crowded gathering of distinguished scientists had been listening intently to the enthralling speech given by acclaimed scientist, Michael Faraday. For an hour he held his brilliant audience spellbound as he demonstrated the nature and properties of the magnet. He brought his lecture to a close with an experiment so novel, so bewildering, and so triumphant that, for some time after he resumed his seat, the house rocked with enthusiastic applause.
And then the Prince of Wales stood to propose a motion of congratulations to Faraday. The resolution was easily seconded and passed with renewed thunders of applause. But the uproar was succeeded by a strange silence. The crowd of scientists waited for Faraday’s reply but the lecturer had vanished! What had become of him? Only two or three of his most intimate friends knew of his secret departure.
They knew that the great chemist was something more than a great chemist; he was a great Christian. Michael Faraday served as an elder in a small church nearby that never boasted more than twenty members. The hour at which Faraday concluded his lecture was the hour of the midweek prayer meeting—a meeting that Faraday never neglected. And, under cover of the cheering applause, the great chemist had slipped out of the crowded hall and hurried off to the little meetinghouse.
F. W. BOREHAM
I can take my telescope and look millions of miles into space; but I can go away to my room, and in prayer, get nearer to God and heaven than I can when assisted by all of the telescopes in the world.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON
Pray About It: We live in an age where science has been given almost religious status. Few modern scientists are openly Christian. What a change this is from their forebears. Many of the most important scientists of the past had a deep faith in God. Many, like Faraday and Newton, were strongly Christian.
There should be no gulf between science and Christianity. Scientists have helped humankind immensely. Many men and women alive today would be dead if not for the achievements of modern medicine. We all benefit daily from the inventions given to us by inventors and scientists.
But what is science if not the discovery of laws that God has set in motion? There can be no design without a designer. A scientist merely applies the laws that God has ordained in such a way as to benefit humankind. The great man of science, George Washington Carver, simply asked in prayer, “Mr. Creator, why did You create the peanut?” From the answer to that simple prayer came knowledge that influenced the development of a host of modern conveniences including printer’s ink, salad oil, instant coffee, and paints.
What would happen if God were to move dramatically in the hearts and minds of contemporary scientists? Perhaps a cure for cancer? Perhaps the discovery of ways to grow food with which we could eliminate famine?
Pray for the scientific community. Pray first and foremost that they step back from their microscopes, pause, and consider that the answers they seek are known by God.
May they, like Faraday, Newton, and Carver, have the courage to put God first.
God is going to reveal to us things He never revealed before, if we put our hands in His.
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER
From the book
