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Prayer Power
by Mervyn Morelock, Lt. Colonel –
Count Your Blessings!
“Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God has done.
Count your blessings name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
Have you ever tried to “count your blessings?” Most of us don’t take time very often to count the many blessings that we’ve received; it’s easy to feel that we don’t have many. We begin to feel lost, discouraged, defeated or depressed. One treatment method used to help people who are depressed and in despair is to have them write out a list of their blessings. People who regularly count their blessings usually are quite happy, or at the very least, content.
Retired officer, Brigadier Rudolpho Rodriguera, 87, has endured several strokes and other problems over the years. When asked how he is, he gives a bright smile, lifts his hand with a smart Salvation Army salute and replies, “Well, I’m alive!” Now that’s a blessing!
The other day, I decided it was time to clean out a file I’ve been keeping of the many prayer requests received by the Territorial Call to Prayer ministry. In order to keep track of the requests received each week by e-mail, telephone calls, letters, bulletins, etc., they are dated and placed in a folder to prepare the next week’s Call to Prayer Bulletin. The lists are examined, re-worded a bit to keep confidentiality, entered onto the weekly list, prayed for, and sent out to the territory. Then the lists are filed by the date published.
The file of last year’s requests was getting so full that it was time to make room for this year’s requests. Nearly two reams of requests needed to be cleared, and that was just for 2007! As I again read over the anxiety, fear, desperation and last resort hope expressed in the requests, I remembered the feelings generated when they were first received.
Nearly 50 prayer request bulletins are sent each year to over 320 congregations and prayer groups.
As I read the files, the number of requests that had been processed overwhelmed me, yet I was even more “surprised” with the number of God’s powerful answers to the prayer requests in that file of papers! God really does answer prayer!
At various Salvation Army events and in reading the pages of the New Frontier, I see the faces or the names of many were on the prayer lists and who are living testimonies to God’s grace and answers to prayer. He is awesome!
So, as I’ve been counting the blessings of the Lord recently, like the song says, I’ve been “surprised what God has done!” We really shouldn’t be surprised. We need to trust God. The Bible says, “He answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him” (1 Chronicles 5:20b).
I like one message we received, “Thank God, you can take my name off the prayer list. I’m well; I’ve been healed; I’m back at work.”
God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good!
Start counting your blessings, naming them one by one! It will surprise you what the Lord has done!
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