The Sustaining Power of Prayer

When my wife, Cathe, and I faced the greatest crisis of our lives, which was our son Christopher’s death in an automobile accident, we learned to pray as never before. Our prayers weren’t just prayers of petition; they were prayers of desperation. They were prayers to get through the day.

Three things helped me as we went through, and continue to go through, that crisis: prayer, the Word of God, and the encouragement of fellow believers.

I found that I needed to pray, especially in the immediate aftermath, to get to sleep at night. I needed to pray to get up in the morning. I needed to pray to make it through another day. We went to church the next Sunday morning, three days after it happened, and later people would come up to me and say, “Greg, we saw you and your family at church. You’re so strong. We can’t believe how strong you are.”

But I didn’t go to church that Sunday because I was strong. I went to church because I was weak. I needed God’s help. I needed to pray. I needed God’s Word. I needed encouragement.

Even when things are going reasonably well, we still should pray. James 5:13 says, “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises” (NLT).

Sometimes we go to church feeling overwhelmed by our problems. We worship the Lord, we hear a message from God’s Word, and then we leave—and our problems are still there. But we see them differently, because we have seen God in His power.

When we pause to contemplate the greatness of God, we get perspective. When we have a big God, we have relatively small problems. It is all in how we look at things.