The Principal emiritus

Prayer and praise are two of the most pleasing exercises we can give to God. Prayer is the expression of our complete dependence upon Him and praise is the acknowledgement that our trust in Him was not in vain. It is an acknowledgement of His great goodness. God loves to be trusted. That is why He called David “a man after His own heart.” David always turned to Him in every situation and after every defeat, whatever it was, he sought refuge in Him. Every true Christian knows all this from personal experience. All defeats and failures in Christian life have their origin in prayerlessness. That is the tragedy in many Christians’ lives.  

This is true with the nations of the world also. In American currency and coins, we read the following phrase “In God we trust.” But it is not the phrase which is pleasing to God but the actual practice of such a trust. It is not sufficient to appoint a day of prayer. What is needed is a prayer offered in a God pleasing way. That means above everything we have to humble and confess our sins before our holy God. King Jehoshaphat had many powerful enemies. Some of them were Moabites and the children of Ammon. When the enemies came with vast armies, this God-fearing king sought the Lord and trusted Him. He said, “we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee” (2 Chr. 20:12). Of course, it was a humiliating speech to say we don’t know what to do. Our eyes are upon thee. God defeated the enemies and victory was given by God. There are many other similar incidents in OT history.  

We are living in the Laodicean assembly age; where the main characteristics of this period are feelings of sufficiency in money, food and clothing. The people of this age don’t realize the need of total dependence upon God and they don’t know the power of prayer. How true it is! Prayer changes things. We the BBI family know the power of prayer. For the last couple of years, many did pray with us. These prayer warriors are one of our greatest assets. We need more of such real praying saints who really spend some time to pray for the welfare of this institute; where we always confess our complete dependence upon God who is able to accomplish more than what we can expect. What a Great God we have! Shall we offer our prayer and praise to the One whose ears are always inclined to His children’s cry.