CORONA VIRUS VS. EXTRAORDINARY PRAYER
Usually in the mid-month I share a verse. However, during these times I think it is most fitting to share a devotion with God’s Word.
I recently read The Battle Plan for Prayer by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. Here I found a chapter named “Extraordinary Prayer.” We would not have time to give you all the examples of what an extraordinary prayer was. However, today I would like to give you a couple examples of what the extraordinary prayer would look like.
For example, in Esther 4:15-16, we find the decision of a very bad man, Haman, to eliminate all the Jews. Mordecai told Esther that she must defend the Jews by talking with the king. So Esther asked Mordecai to gather everyone, “Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:15-16 [NIV]
We also find the extraordinary prayer of the first church in the books of Acts. The Apostle Peter was in jail for preaching the Gospel and the Word of God says in Acts 12:5-10, “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.” Acts 12:5-10 [NIV]. Through these verses you can see what God’s actions were from this extraordinary prayer.
The other example is Jesus Christ Himself. In Luke 6:12-13 [NIV] we read, “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles .” We see here how crucial it was for Jesus to spend all night in prayer asking His Father to help Him pick the 12 that would be a part of His team. And we can see the result was 12 men who changed the world.
In 2 Chronicles 28:30 [NIV] we read that Solomon is dedicating the temple, “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when enemies besiege them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel—being aware of their afflictions and pains, and spreading out their hands toward this temple—then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive, and deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know the human heart).”
After Solomon is done with his dedication prayer God speaks to him: “When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, the Lord appeared to him at night and said: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
So let’s humble ourselves, as James says, before the powerful hand of God and He will do the marvelous works we are anticipating.
The Word of God says, “Pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17. This does not mean that you must have a prayer service every day of the week at your church. Praying without ceasing means, that at every moment we are crying out to God. When you’re driving, when you’re cooking, when you’re in your office, whatever activity you’re doing you can be praying and crying out to God, asking him to heal our earth, to forgive our sins, and to put an end to this virus for His glory.
I want to encourage you to join me in praying without ceasing for full healing of our earth. God Bless you.
