I am going to ask for a little engagement as you read this, so please humor me. If you have felt tempted to worry during this pandemic, please raise your hand. Is it up? Mine certainly is.

As the pandemic began unfolding, I felt a nagging feeling creeping up on me. I tried to describe it, but struggled to pinpoint the right word. Then, a realization occurred. The elusive word?

Temptation.

I started to feel a temptation to fear and worry, as I got drawn into the news reports, and daily press conferences.

While we do need to keep ourselves informed, we do need to guard our hearts and minds as we process that information. We can’t forget who God is, and remember that nothing is beyond His reach. As I felt myself tempted to fear and worry, I had to intentionally stop myself and declare “I am not going to worry! I am going to pray.”

The truth is, worrying isn’t going to produce any results, other than elevate stress, and allow fear to gain a foothold. God is still God, and a pandemic certainly cannot change that!

I know prayer changes things. In James 5:16, “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

I witnessed the power of a simple prayer.

Two years ago, my grandfather, “Pappa,” was in the hospital, terminally ill. I was staying in the hospital room with him. In the middle of the night, he woke up in pain. Sitting hunched over in his hospital bed, he began to cry. A shoulder-shaking, powerless kind of cry. He was a bearded mountain-man from the Appalachian hills of Virginia, and all my life I’d never seen him shed a single tear. It was heartbreaking. I said, “Pappa, I don’t know what to do. I can say a prayer for you, if you want?” and without even lifting his head, he mumbled, “ok.”

Prayer wasn’t something we talked about and I didn’t know where he was in his walk with God. I awkwardly put my hand on his shoulder, bowed my head and prayed, “Lord, we need You.” Pappa suddenly sat up as straight as a rail, with his shoulders pulled back - as if a jolt had gone through him. He looked up at me with an expression of amazement and shock, and through tears he said, “I just felt the pain lift right up off of me.” Now we both had tears in our eyes; we knew God had just touched him.

The next morning, I called Pappa’s sister, my great-aunt Eunice, and told her about the prayer experience. She said, “I have been praying - God will You please touch him.” She’d had an old gospel song on her mind, called “He Touched Me.” Whether God answers prayers within seconds, or years, be assured that prayer is powerful and effective.

Prayer builds relationship with God, helps us mature in our faith, and renews our mind. We are instructed to pray in Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

One of my favorite scriptures is Philippians 4:6-7. It has helped me conquer fear. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”.

Notice the command and the promise? It says “DO NOT” be anxious about anything.  It’s not a mere suggestion. I love the promise we find here, “The peace of God WILL guard your hearts and minds”. It doesn’t say it “might” guard your hearts and minds, it says it WILL.

Jesus prayed often, and He is the son of God. I believe we need prayer all the more! Jesus modeled prayer for us in Matthew 6:9-13, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” It’s a daily prayer.

Jesus prayed in thanksgiving, and in moments of joy. He prayed for God’s will to be done, above and beyond His own. He prayed for others, for Himself, before and after miracles, and with His final breath. He even prayed for you, me, and all future believers, in John 17:20, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message” Keep praying, don’t lose hope.

Persistence is emphasized in Luke 18:1-8 when Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’”

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

We need to pray, and also believe. Stand firm in faith. God hears your prayers, and will answer them in accordance with His will, and timing. God is sovereign. He has a bird’s-eye view, while ours is more like looking through a little peephole. In Ephesians 3:20, we read that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” We serve a mighty God! In Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

God is good, and He is just. He is merciful, and He is faithful. Your prayers are in good hands, His plans cannot be thwarted. God is omnipotent; all powerful. He is omniscient; all knowing. He is omnipresent; He is always with us, and He is everywhere.