Prayer is POWER!! Can you believe that? I’m showing my age now but I remember Wayside Pulpits that used to advertise their prayer meetings by an electricity pylon with lightning bolts bursting from the top in all directions. Prayer is POWER!!
What can we learn from that picture? What makes power? If we look at a source of power - the battery, we might get some spiritual guidelines.
Charging the battery: For a battery to be of any use it has to be charged with power. Without the power it is just an empty vessel. To charge a battery you need to connect it to the ultimate power source. So the analogy with the Christian prayer life is straightforward. To be charged with the power of the Holy Spirit we must first empty ourselves and open our minds and hearts to the influence of the Holy Spirit.
In our quiet times we must be just that. Quiet - listening to God. I’ve said before just how difficult it is to deliberately listen to God instead of filling the silence by talk. Yes our minds wander - and yes sometimes it seems more like gossip than a spiritually fulfilling experience.
Sometimes though ....... just when we least expect it a wonderful picture of God appears in our mind, or something about God really strikes home. On those occasions it really is POWER. The funny thing is though, that the more you persevere with this listening - the easier it becomes and the more powerful and intimate the revelation God gives you.
Testing the battery: Following on with the picture of the battery, the next thing most people do before using the battery is to test it out to see that the power is active and working. So in the Christian prayer life we need to test out the power of prayer. The easiest way is to look at what our Sovereign Lord has done in our life in the last couple of weeks.
Not necessarily the big things but the little things that mean a simple prayer has been answered. If it’s answered prayer in the little things then it gives us confidence to seek answered prayer in the big things.
Tapping into and using the power: The final part of our battery picture. It’s no use having charged up a battery and tested it then just to leave it on the shelf. A battery is only of any use when it’s put to use - doing something that could not be done without it. So in the Christian prayer life. Prayer is no use unless we use it. Things wont change unless we bring them to our Sovereign Lord in prayer.
A battery usually doesn’t just get connected for a second or so it stays plugged in until either the job is finished or it needs recharging. So another lesson for our Christian prayer life - commitment and discipline. Once we feel a prayer task is for us to follow through - we do just that, faithfully, regularly and with commitment. Yes - just like the battery - we will need to recharge. But isn’t that the excitement because the cycle starts all over again! Try introducing the battery cycle occasionally into your prayer life - it might just produce a spark!