Scripture
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
~I Thessalonians 5:16-18, NLT
Quote
“For most of us the prayer in Gethsemane is the only model. Removing mountains can wait.”
~C.S. Lewis
Although Satan uses distractions, he does not want us to understand that we are being distracted. If we understand that he is behind the distraction, he loses his advantage.
Satan loathes and fears believers who pray. Any sincere pray offered by believers bothers Satan. He does not want us praying. Anemic prayers, good prayers, short prayers, long prayers, any prayer is bad as far as the devil is concerned. He does not mind us talking about prayer, reading books on prayer so long as we don’t pray. His approach is to discourage us from prayer by raising an endless number of questions that we cannot answer.
How does prayer work? Why would an infinite God who dwells in eternity listen to the prayer of a finite human in time? If God is sovereign, how can our prayer affect His will? How can He listen to thousands of us praying at the same time? How in the world can the human prayer of today affect the weather of tomorrow? We have answers to none of the above questions. Prayer is a mystery. It is something that we are to do in spite of the fact that we do not understand how it works. One does not have to understand the dynamics of electricity to flip a light switch.
Do we know how to pray? Do we understand prayer? No, but I will pray every day. I need to pray and I need to pray daily. Don’t let Satan keep your from prayer. He will do everything he can to keep you out or your prayer closet. Many times, the devil has said to me, “You can’t pray, you don’t even know how.” My response is–“You may be right but I am going to pray anyway.” He tries the same trick with giving: I can count on him to say, “You don’t need to give, your motives is not pure and you will get no reward.” I always tell him, “You may be right, I don’t always know my motive but there is a need and I am giving reward or no reward.”I have no intentions of allowing the ultimate con artist to make a miser out of me.
Well folks, beginning at 5:00 this evening, the Governor is issuing a STAY AT HOME rule. You can grocery shop or order take out food from restaurants but if you are caught doing non-essential things, there is a $500 fine. According to the Governor, there are now 34 deaths in Alabama and the median age is 49. If memory serves me right, I think the youngest was 31. It is not getting the very old or the very young but those with pre-conditions like COPD, pneumonia, etc. According to prognostications, April will be much worse than March. She said the US has twice as many cases as any other country in the world. Although I find that hard to believe, I cannot refute it.
The bottom line is: barring a miracle of some sort, this thing is going to last much longer than we first suspected. Whereas I questioned our leadership at the beginning of this crisis, I tend to agree with them now. Today was day 15 of the original shut-down. I don’t think we are looking at another 15 days, I am thinking 30 to 45. I hope I am wrong. I probably am since I haven’t gotten anything right since the whole thing began.
Have a great day and don’t go any where unless you have to.