We do not live in a praying age....
We live in an age of hustle and bustle, of man's efforts and man's determination, of man's confidence in himself and in his own power to achieve things, an age of human organization and human machinery, human push and human scheming, and human achievement, which in the things of God means no real achievement at all.
I think it would be perfectly safe to say that the church of Christ was never in all its history so fully, so skillfully, so thoroughly and so perfectly organized as it is today. Our machinery is wonderful; it is just perfect, but alas, it is machinery without power; and when things do not go right, instead of going to the real source of our failure, our neglect to depend on God and look to God for power, we look around to see if there is not some new organization we can get up, some new wheel that we can add to our machinery. We have altogether too many wheels already....
I believe that the devil stands and looks at the church today and laughs in his sleeve as he sees how its members depend on their own scheming and power of organization and skillfully devised machinery. "Ha, Ha", he laughs, "you may have...your costly church edifices, your musical instruments, your university-bred preachers, your high priced musicians, your immense men's Bible classes, yes, and your conferences, institutes and evangelistic services, all you please of them; it does not in the least trouble me, unless you will only leave out of them the power of the Lord God Almighty sought and obtained by the earnest, persistent, believing prayer that will not take no for an answer." But when the devil sees a man or woman who really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and, above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, "he trembles" as much as he ever did, for he knows that this [his] day in that church or community is at an end.
From "The Power of Prayer" by R. A. Torrey
Father, God, make us a people and house of prayer that will vividly display thy supernatural glory, splendor and mercies toward those who wait for it from You. In Jesus' name...Amen....
