God of Peace, God of Power – A Quote

Prayer is an unnatural activity.

From birth, we learn the rules of self-reliance as we strain and struggle toward independence, and frankly, prayer flies in the face of all that.  It is an assault on human autonomy, an indictment on self-sufficient living.  To people like me, who are fond of racing down the fast lane, determined to make it on their own, prayer can seem a really annoying interruption.

Although prayer is alien to our proud human nature, somehow, at some point along life’s journey, most of us fall to our knees, bow our heads, fix our attention to God and just plain pray.  We may look both ways to be sure no one is watching; our knees may creak at the foreignness of the activity; but still, we pray.  It’s as if something within us is hard-wired with the knowledge that in so doing we weave stronger threads of intimacy with the One who alone can provide peace to endure and power to overcome whatever challenges we face….

Once Moses made the connection between prayer and God’s power, he determined to spend the rest of the day praying for God’s involvement in the battle.  But his arms grew weary.  He knew better than to drop them to his sides; he had done that before and watched his troops get wiped out as a result.  So Aaron and the other man who accompanied him up the hill found a stone Moses could sit on.  Then each man crawled under an arm and helped Moses hold his hands to the heavens.  What a picture – Moses being supported by caring people who wanted to help him keep the power flowing!  Suffice it to say, Israel won the battle that day.

–Bill Hybels, from “Too Busy Not to Pray”