Saturday, April 19, 2008 God is just a prayer away By Henrylito D. Tacio Regarding Henry
IN 2004, an e-mail was circulated around the world asking to pray for the Philippines.
"Prayer is our only hope," said Father James Reuter, S.J., author of the forwarded e-mail. What prompted the priest to write it was because of the assessment of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo about the current status of the country: "Our republic has become one of the weakest, steadily left behind by its more progressive neighbors."
"Forty years ago, we were only second to Japan in economic stature, and way ahead of Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand," Father Reuter wrote.
"Today, at our present growth rate, it will take us 30 years to get to where Thailand is today."
He also noted, "We will be competing, not against Thailand or even Vietnam, but against Bangladesh." Can you imagine that? Another reason: "We will be the most corrupt nation in Asia, if not in the world." At the time it was written, the Philippines was already ranked 11th among the most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International.
"The signs are clear," Father Reuter claimed. "Our nation is headed towards an irreversible path of economic decline and moral decadence." So many efforts have been done already but they were not enough. "We need a force far greater than our collective efforts, as a people, can ever hope to muster. It is time to move the battle to the spiritual realm. It's time to claim God's promise of healing of the land for His people. It's time to gather God's people on its knees to pray for the economic recovery and moral reformation of our nation."
The Bible states: "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land" (II Chronicles 7:14).
"More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of," someone once said.
"Love to pray," urges Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa. "Feel often during the day the need for prayer, and take trouble to pray. Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of Himself. Ask and seek and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him."
"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action," Mahatma Gandhi said. The prophet Muhammad also said, "The key of paradise is prayer, and the key of prayer is ablution."
One of the great business leaders in the United States is J. Arthur Rank. And he believes in prayer. He has an elevator straight up to his office, but he does not use it. He prefers the stairs and calls them his "prayer stairs."
In the morning as he walks up, he prays, asking God to guide him in every step he takes that day. As he takes each step separately and deliberately, he prays. He finally arrives at the top in more ways than one.
Don't ever question the power of prayer. "None can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but those who have learned it by experience," Martin Luther pointed out. "It is a great matter when in extreme need to take hold on prayer. I know, whenever I have prayed earnestly, that I have been amply heard, and have obtained more than I prayed for. God indeed sometimes delayed, but at last He came."
"The prayer power," says J. Hudson Taylor, "has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, 'Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and might things which thou knowest not!"
Perhaps one of the best prayers ever written was the one penned by Saint Francis of Assisi. "Lord, make me a channel of thy peace. That where there is hatred, I may bring love. That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness. That where there is discord, I may bring harmony. That where there is error, I may bring truth. That where there is doubt, I may bring faith. That where there is despair, I may bring hope. That where there are shadows, I may bring light. That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
"Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted. To understand, than to be understood. To love, than to be loved. For it is by giving the one receives; it is by self-forgetting that one finds; it is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by drying that one awakens to eternal life."
