Power Shortage
John Gipson
2/25/98
Power Shortage
My heart goes out to those folks in Maine, Canada, and other locations, who have experienced a tremendous power shortage due to ice storms and snow. They are painfully aware of how much they have lost, and earnestly long for a restoration of power. But not infrequently we sustain a greater disaster, almost unnoticed.
Christians come together. One stands before the assembly and says,
Let us pray. We bow our heads. Is it only a ritual, a little form we go through, or something purposeful, fraught with power?
This is no time for idle words, ill-conceived thoughts, or discounted expectations. It is a time for faith!
If you pray believing the Scriptures remind us.
What does it profit, my brethren, if we pray but have not faith? What does it profit if we only say words which have no spirit or understanding behind them? Surely the question and the resolve of the apostle Paul should be mine,
What am I to do? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also. Without following his example, we are sure to experience a power shortage in which prayer becomes merely prattle.
Prayer meetings? I know. They can become so stereotyped and casual. Phrases endlessly repeated become trite. But the cure for abuse is not disuse.
Before Pentecost came prayer.
All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer. They prayed. Not casually or indifferently. They devoted themselves to it. And they did it with one accord. The early followers of Jesus plugged into the power source! Will we be as wise?
—John Gipson
Little Rock AR
