Twin Sisters of Faith: Praise and Prayer
There is much we can learn from our forebears regarding the act of worship. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20 we discover how Jehoshaphat learned the sudden news of a great invasion that was coming. Like true children of God, both he and his people set about to seek the Lord and proclaim a fast. The people came together in haste and the whole nation earnestly cried to the Lord for help. This brought hope in a time of crisis.
How did they ask for help? According to verses 6-12, they expressed their confidence, pleaded His past acts, and confessed their condition: “We have no might against this great company” and “neither know we what to do” (verse 12).
Then they lifted their souls to God with renewed assurance, calmness, and faith and worshiped Him. With every sign of reverence, the king and his people bowed before Jehovah and worshiped Him (verse 18).
It is amazing how worship girds us for spiritual warfare. They praised the Lord with a loud voice (verse 19). They blessed the Lord. They rested in the Lord. Worship prepares us to do battle with the enemy even at a time of loss. And the enemy is real. The Moabites of superstition, the Ammonites of worldliness, and the Edomites of infidelity are real and constitute an ever present danger.
Besides worship, the king and his people did something else: they prayed. Prayer and praise go together like hand-in-glove. Ellen White says, “Why should the sons and daughters of God be reluctant to pray, when prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven's store-house, where are the boundless resources of Omnipotence? Without unceasing prayer, without diligent watching, we are in danger of growing careless, and of deviating from the right path. Our backsliding may be so gradual that we may fancy ourselves in a good spiritual condition when we are surely on the enemy's ground. The adversary seeks continually to obstruct the way to the mercy seat, that we may not by earnest supplication and faith obtain supplies of grace and power to resist temptation.” Signs of the Times, December 23, 1889.
Recently, our community in South Lancaster received a jolt of bad news when it leaned that four students from South Lancaster Academy had met an accident and three of the four boys lost their lives. This had a profound impact on the immediate community surrounding South Lancaster Academy, which includes the Southern New England Conference, the Atlantic Union Conference, Atlantic Union College, and the two South Lancaster churches.
However, as in the days of old, the community came together in prayer and worship to honor the lives of these three stalwart academy youth—Ian Brown, Victor Owusu, and Jody Fouché. It was a time of tremendous outpouring by the community to pay their respects and express their grief. But it was also a time of prayer, praise, and worship, which brought hope and strength in a time of crisis.
Praise and prayer, then, are faith’s twin sisters. Let us take heed and follow King Jehoshaphat’s example as we offer our worship of praise to God—even in a time of crisis and extreme loss.
Donald
G. King is president of the Atlantic Union
Conference and chairman of the Atlantic
Union College Board of Trustees.
Atlantic Union GLEANER
March 2006
