Prayer Changes Things

"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results."  James 5:16

Unless you've been on a distant planet for the past few months, you're aware that the world around us is changing in some pretty dramatic ways.  But, there's something that isn't changing, hasn't changed, and won't ever change.

God.

James 1:17 tells us, "Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow."

While the evil in this world works hard to control our voices, our livelihoods, our health, our money, our churches, and every other freedom we enjoy, there are some things they can never take away from us.  They can never take our faith, hope, love, joy, peace, and they can never stop our prayers.

Prayer is so powerful.  It would take years for me to tell you all the mind-blowing ways that God has answered my prayers.  If you are not attending a bold, courageous, praying church right now, I beg you to find one.

I believe we have already experienced the first of the birth pains that Matthew 24 talks about, and soon to come will be what Jesus tells us about in Matthew 24:9-13, "Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."

As Christians, are we ready for this?  We should be praying now for our Christian brothers and sisters to be strong, to be unashamed, to continue to love our God and each other with every ounce of our being.  We should be praying now for our families not to betray and hate each other.  We should be praying now that we would not turn away from Him.  And, we should be praying now for our eyes to be opened to the deception around us.

May our faith be strong, may we never lose hope, may God, Himself--the very definition of love--indwell our every genome.

1 Corinthians 13:13 promises us, "Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love."

And, may we never stop praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Goodnight, Runners.