Prayer: An Act of Spiritual Defiance

Do you ever feel lost and helpless? Like your actions have no bearing on the rest of history? History belongs to the intercessors. Prayer is a powerful tool that we often underestimate. Just because things are ‘going that way’ doesn’t mean they have to keep going that way. Prayer can be an act of spiritual defiance against the downward momentum. We may say, “I am inadequate.” But Christ responds, “Will not what I have done inspire you to do your best?”


And after those thoughts from chapel poured through my head, I sat down in the recliner, buried my face in my hands and prayed. I prayed for the lost. It struck me that if God loves them so much, why doesn’t he just save them? Why do I have to sit here and agonize over their soul? And that very question congers up debates of free will and predestination. God can’t just save them like that, they’re free to make their own choice–which is what makes it love. And yet at the same time God knew that they would be saved. He listens to my prayers, and he works in their lives, putting the right people around them and letting the right words break through. Until finally the person clearly sees the truth and claims it. But the lines between our free choice and God choosing us blur to a dull headache, and I sit there wondering about the nature of God and the confusion of it all.

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