40Acts - Day Nine ' DIAL UP '

Today's act is all about activating the gift of prayer.

Wait, what? How is prayer generous, you ask?

When we pray, we spend time talking to a God who lives and moves and acts on our behalf and for the good of those who love him. It's generous because you're asking the creator of the universe to do a good thing for someone else. Powerful stuff, folks.

This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. (Acts ‪19:10 NIV)

I had been a decent self-respecting agnostic for some time. I had absorbed the misinformation that there were no real answers to the honest questions a young person would ask: Is there any evidence for God’s existence? Why is there all this suffering? Etc.  But when studying maths at university, I met a Christian who was confident of his faith and was willing to meet and let me argue the issues. To my great surprise I discovered there were answers and gradually learned that I, the agnostic, was the one without the evidence and he, the Christian, was basing his faith on evidence. After some months I realised I needed to respond.

It was probably the most honest prayer I had prayed, and in a totally unreligious setting – the second floor of the West Wing of Birmingham University library with maths books in front of me: ’God if you are there, and I’m not sure you are, but if you are I want to know you.’ Two weeks later I knew he was! I had reached a point of trusting God with my whole life, and then one morning I was alone in my room and found myself overwhelmed with a sense of peace, joy and excitement all rolled together into one four-hour experience. I knew that Jesus was alive and was at work in my life from then on.

Don’t you find it remarkable that God is interested in us and wants us to have honest conversation with him? We don’t need any special skills or high-level clearance to get in contact with him.  In fact there are no barriers (except those we put up ourselves). Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, day or night, we can talk. So how about praying an honest prayer just now before you stop reading this? You could tell God what is important to you that you are concerned about. You could say something you are grateful for. You could … well, just be honest. Here’s some space to do it …


Praying. Millions of people in the UK do it: believers, sceptics, grannies, young people, people who are desperate and people who are not. And God responds.


And here’s a thought: who could you offer the gift of prayer to today?

Today's blog was written by David Hill from try praying. 
Find out more about him and support his chosen charity here

To see today's challenge in full - Click HERE