Have you ever been in a situation where there seemed to be no way out? Everything is going along just fine when, all of a sudden, a storm cloud comes along and rains on your parade. Insurmountable obstacles seem to be growing worse by the minute, and you find yourself wondering what to do.
In Acts 12, we find the story of how God took a tragic, even hopeless, situation and turned it around. It was done by the power of prayer, the kind of prayer that storms the throne of God and gets an answer.
Both James and Peter were in prison. Tragically, James was put to death. But Peter remained alive in prison. Though all doors were closed, one remained open: the door of prayer. The church recognized that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4).
Prayer was and is the church's secret weapon. Although the devil struck a blow against the church, the church gained victory through prayer as Peter was miraculously released.
Sadly, we don't pray often enough. Yet it is essential that Christians learn more about effective prayer, because we will face difficulties. We will face hardships. We will face problems. So we need to discover what God can do through the power of prayer.
Prayer for the Christian should be second nature, like breathing. We should automatically pray, lifting our needs and requests before the Lord. Jesus said that we should always pray and not lose heart (see Luke 18:1).
Prayer is something we should never grow tired of and something we should never avoid. We should be doing it constantly.
