We’re focusing on prayer this month. In this fourth devotion, we’ll learn why prayer must be the first priority as we journey with Jesus:

IN WORD We’ve all heard it before; many of us have even said it. It usually comes after all efforts have been tried and all ideas exhausted. It is almost a statement of despair, when hope is fading fast: “All we can do now is pray.” That’s usually our expression of last resort. We don’t mean to make God’s assistance a backup plan, but that’s what we often do in effect. Rather than calling Him into the situation up front, seeking His guidance and following His lead, we stress and strain over our own solutions. When they fail, we resort to God. We see if He can bail us out.
The early believers didn’t do that. In Acts 4, we read that Peter and John had just come from the Sanhedrin where they were rebuked for teaching in the name of Jesus. The elders ignored the fact that a miraculous healing had taken place and unschooled men were preaching powerfully. The court commanded them to keep quiet and threatened punishment if they did not. Peter and John affirmed their obligation to obey God rather than men, and they left. Still, the situation wasn’t resolved. Persecution of the new faith was clearly on the rise. The first response of the new believers—their immediate reaction—was to pray.
IN DEED What’s your immediate reaction in a difficult situation? What’s the remedy of first resort in your heart? What’s your last resort? Where does prayer fit in the spectrum between the two? If God is a means to bail us out when all else has failed, then we have tried to tap into the most powerful force in the universe as a secondary measure after our own efforts. We have made our solutions the priority. We have put God on the back shelf. There’s a better way, especially where the mission is involved.
God is to be sought first, during, and after. If we don’t have His direction and His backing in a crisis, then we are destined for futility. The God of miracles and compassion would rather hear us say up front: “All we can do now is pray.” We need more Christians for whom prayer is the first resort, not the last. —John Blanchard (in “God With Us” by Chris Tiegreen)

Is prayer your first or your last resort? If the last, change the order and make it your first resort. You may find that your reliance on other resorts will diminish, for nothing is impossible for our sovereign Lord as only He can provide a means of salvation in every situation and circumstance!
Continue to read E.M. Bounds’ book, Power Through Prayer, and let the priority of prayer empower you to live above the world’s circumstances. Have a power-filled and blessed week! - from Singapore, Pastor Sam