In this day and hour, when everyone is seeking profit, let us not forget that there is great profit in prayer. The ancient one tells us that if we make our prayer unto God, He will stop what He’s doing and hear us. The Infinite One – the One who runs this universe – the One who manages the affairs of nations – the One who does great and mighty works – will stop everything and hear our prayer.
Charles Spurgeon related this during one of his sermons: “All the mighty works of God have been attended with great prayer, as well as great faith. Have ye ever heard of the commencement of the great American revival? A man, unknown and obscure, laid it up in his heart to pray that God would bless his country. After praying and wrestling and making the soul-stirring inquiry, ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?’ he hired a room, and put up an announcement that there would be a prayer meeting held there at such-and-such an hour of the day.
“He went at the proper hour, and there was not a single person there; he began to pray, and prayed for half an hour alone. One came in at the end of the half-hour, and then two more, and I think he closed with six. The next week came around, and there might have been fifty dropped in at different times. At last the prayer meetings grew to a hundred; then others began to start prayer meetings; at last there was scarcely a street in New York that was without a prayer meeting. Merchants found time to run in, in the middle of the day, to pray.
“The prayer meetings became daily ones, lasting for about an hour; petitions and requests were sent up; these were simply asked and offered before God, and the answers came; and many happy hearts that stood up and testified that the prayer offered last week had been already fulfilled. Then it was when they were all earnest in prayer, suddenly the Spirit of God fell upon the people, and it was rumored that in a certain village a preacher had been preaching in thorough earnest, and there had been hundreds converted in a week. The matter spread into and through the Northern States. These revivals of religion became universal, and it has been sometimes said, that a quarter of a million people were converted to God through the short space of two or three months.”
Yes, there is great profit in prayer. Oh, more than likely it won’t fill your pockets with cash; it won’t put a Porsche in your garage; it won’t give you a vacation house in the south of France. But it will profit you in ways that you could never imagine – with joy – with peace – with hope. Who knows but that you will pray for God to bless your country and He will send great revival sweeping through the shores of this once-great land. Who knows?
Quote – “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
