Sometimes we imagine that power in prayer is something we generate, that is, if we feel strongly enough about something and pray fervently enough it will happen. That is to seek power from the wrong source. Power in prayer comes when we surrender to God’s power and purpose.

• Focus - We need to look to the Provider rather than the Problem. Praise and thanksgiving are among the most helpful ways of enabling us to see the divine perspective (Read Psalm 103 aloud)
• Frailty - We live in a "I can fix it" age. However, one of the greatest obstacles to divine grace is human pride. When we acknowledge to God that we are totally dependent on Him then His power and blessing can flow into our lives and we can become channels of His grace and intercessors for others.
• Forgiveness - We need to acknowledge before God those specific sins that bind us and block our prayers. We need also to accept forgiveness and to see ourselves as sons and daughters of God.
• Faith - Means seeing that God has the answer to our need. It is a gift of God and involves not just feelings but decisions. It is spelled R.I.S.K. (read Hebrews 11)
• Future - Whatever may happen to us here on earth we have a future with God. He does not promise always to take away the pain or the problem, but He has undertaken to be with us. "Fear not for I am with you" is a promise He repeatedly makes.
• Fellowship - Prayer is a corporate activity as well as an individual one. Special promises are attached to prayers concerning the Kingdom when we pray in agreement. (See Matthew 18:19 20) When we meet in His name He promises to be among us. So I would encourage activities such as, for instance, prayer triplets or telephone prayer chains.
• Fasting - This is a spiritual discipline allied to prayer and is often helpful when we seeking direction in life. (More details about Fasting may be found in Richard Foster’s excellent book, Celebration of Discipline.)

For meditation read the passage below and see it as a parable about prayer. Many of the factors listed above are to be found there. Place the object of your concern - a person or situation - upon the stretcher and imaginatively walk through the story and then turn this into prayer.

'A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…" He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" '(Mark 2:1-12

Revd. Donald Dowling