Praying For StrengthSample

DAY ONE: See What God Can Do

Can God use our weakened condition? Yes! That is one of the main points in my book It’s Time to Pray. God does not require a huge amount of strength, nor does He shun our human weakness! We are His instruments—it is God who sculpts a masterpiece from our human fragility.

Hudson Taylor was a missionary and wonderful man of God. Prayer was the foundation of his life and his ministry. He once said, “God chose me because I was weak enough. God does not do his great works by large committees. He trains somebody to be quiet enough, and little enough, and then he uses him.”

Ray Buker, an Olympic runner, began his junior year at Bates in the fall of 1920. For the first time since the war the college entered a team into the New England cross-country event held in Boston at the Franklin Park course.

Ray was a member of that team. It was a strange course, and although it had some gentle slopes, it had none of the steep hills that were characteristic of all his cross-country races in Maine. At about a mile from the finish Ray was so far behind the leaders that he was convinced that humanly speaking he could never place, even if he used his sprint for the last part of the race.

He prayed, telling the Lord that perhaps it was not His will that he should win and that he didn’t know how he could. The Lord answered, “Start to sprint.” Ray replied, “Lord, You know that one can’t sprint for a mile!” He felt that God’s answer entered his soul: “You obey Me, and you will see what I can do.” Ray began to sprint. He soon drew even with the leaders—and finished first.

(Eric Fife, Against the Clock – Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan)