Dave’s Monday Blast – August 1, 2016
We have been encouraging our church community to pray this summer in our Host Home Small Group Studies. The “War Room” has challenged all of us to carefully examine our prayer lives. Why do we pray? When do we pray? How do we pray? Where do we pray? The bottom line is this…prayer is simply hard work! Author and Pastor Max Lucado noted, “When we work, we work; but when we pray, God works.” We can do no greater work than praying for Almighty God to work. Men of INTENTION know this to be true!
Scripture is clear: “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). If we ask it, it will be given to us (Matthew 7:7). John Wesley believed that “God will do nothing on earth except in answer to believing prayer.” Think upon that!
But it’s easy to wonder if praying actually changes the world. You history buffs will love this: During those early dark days of World War II, British Major Wellesley Tudor Pole proposed what became known as the “Silent Minute.” (Google that for lots of connected reading.) He suggested that people devote one minute each evening at 9:00 p.m. for praying for peace. Both King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill supported the idea. On Sunday, November 10, 1940, BBC radio began broadcasting the chiming of Big Ben as a signal for the Silent Minute to begin. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged the Silent Minute, which spread across the land and sea to battlefields, air raid shelters, and hospitals.
After the war, a British intelligence officer was interrogating a high Nazi official. He asked him why he thought Germany had been defeated. The official replied, “During the war, you had a secret weapon for which we could find no counter measure, which we did not understand, but it was very powerful. It was associated with the striking of Big Ben each evening. I believe you called it the ‘Silent Minute.'”
This movement has been revived numerous times since during difficult days, and there is a current effort to resurrect it once again in preparation for our forthcoming elections. You can join countless others at (8:00 p.m. Central, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 7:00 p.m. Mountain, and 6:00 p.m. Pacific any given evening) for a Silent Moment of Prayer for our Nation. Prayer has NO countermeasure! Do you agree brothers?
