Praying for change

It's tempting to give up on people and circumstances that seem too hard to handle.

But things are possible with God which seem impossible to us.

If we run up against a brick wall, we can do no better than pray.  And God may surprise us.

I think of the apostle Peter in jail in Jerusalem, chained between two soldiers.  He was to go on trial the next day. 

In Acts 12, we read that an angel appeared before Peter as he was sleeping and poked him to wake him up.  The chains fell off and Peter, still half-asleep, followed the angel out of the cell and past guard posts.  The iron gate leading to the city opened by itself and Peter walked with the angel until the angel suddenly disappeared. Peter was free.

And what was going on among the believers while Peter was in jail?  They were praying together fervently for their leader and friend.

I need to remind myself of this before throwing up my hands when a person or a situation seems impossible to deal with.  God works as we pray.

Paul Miller, author of A Praying Life, hammers the point home that we must always ask.  Jesus made the same point in Luke 18 that we must "always pray and never give up".

Miller suggests we pray for change in others, change in ourselves, and change in things we don't like.  We can pray that God will:

• Bring his grace to bear on people we find difficult, softening them and making them more like Christ;
• Change us - a scary prayer - so that we become more like Christ; and
• Change our surrounding culture, rolling back evil.

The Bible is filled with stories of how God invaded hopeless situations and brought change.

God wants us to ask - and keep on asking.