Devoted To Prayer

Devoted to Prayer

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Colossians 4:2

JEREMIAH LANPHIER WAS CONCERNED for the souls of businessmen around him. In fact, he prayed for them every day during the noon hour. Eventually he wondered if others might like to join him, so he started a regular weekday prayer meeting during the lunch hour when businesses were closed. He passed out fliers—the most immediate way to reach large numbers of people in 1850s New York—and invited many to come. But at the time of the first meeting, no one had shown up. Only a few straggled in during the hour, and only a few of those agreed to try again the next week and the next. But within six months, more than 10,000 men were gathering for prayer. Revivals with hundreds of conversions began to break out nearby and then further away. A spiritual movement had begun.

Similar stories are told of other prayer movements—the Moravian movement, revivals in China and Korea, and many others. In fact, history has been shaped by unknown prayer warriors even more profoundly than by the famous names and faces we put in our textbooks. That’s because history’s actors perform their scenes on a stage governed by a Playwright and his stagehands. When he responds to the prayers of his people, tides turn and trends give way to the currents of his Kingdom. He is building something magnificent through the prayers and faith of Kingdom citizens.

Because of your connection to the source of life, you have more influence in this world than you have yet imagined. You may never be recognized for that power or even see its effects yourself. But people with eyes of faith know the potential and take advantage of it. Like Jeremiah Lanphier and many before and since, they believe that crying out to God for his purposes is much more powerful than trying to forge our own. A life devoted to prayer changes the course of history and blesses a world that resists its own Creator. It puts you in a position of authority no matter how little earthly power you hold. And it makes you a partner with God in his mission to rescue, redeem, and restore the lives of many.

Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.