I
had the privilege early this morning of attending a National Day of Prayer Event in our community.
As our speaker, a senior pastor in a downtown church, began, I wondered about the
timeliness of his topic. Only a few moments had passed, when I realized how
incredibly powerful and especially appropriate his message was.
I’ll
paraphrase a bit. He said that in our culture we tend to believe that (I think
have this phrase verbatim): “More is powerful; less is worse; big is important;
and small is insignificant.”
And
yes, we do. It’s all about more and big in just about every arena.
Our
speaker’s wife recently worked in Philadelphia for a week and had the
opportunity to visit Independence Hall. She sent him a picture of the room in
which the Declaration of Independence was drafted, the “most important document
of freedom” ever conceived. He observed how surprisingly small the room was.
He
quoted Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Earth's crammed with heaven, And every
common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes…”
I
thought of Ann Voskamp and her Holy Experience and because all of life flames
with God.
How
she writes to give thanks for the little things and how that magnifies our
experience of God and His grace.
Then
our speaker testified how as an adolescent he questioned a Sunday School teacher
about the meaning of “The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
She
said, “It means your prayers matter.”
And
right there was his point. One person’s prayers matter. Even when we don’t feel
like they do. Even when we don’t see immediate results, the prayer of one
person when offered from a heart turned to God can work much.
So
when we pray for the big stuff, like “God please turn a country back to you,”
we can feel our prayers small. But they aren’t. “The prayer of a person living
right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with (James 5:16 The Message).
As
our speaker said, it’s easy to slip into thinking, ““More is powerful; less is
worse; big is important; and small is insignificant.”
But
one person’s prayers matter.
Today,
let those prayers be yours.