Keys to the powerful Christian life

"Ye have not, because ye ask not." (James 4:2)

I recently bought a jigsaw and as in times past, would assemble the border first -- for the border frames the picture and prescribes how long and wide the puzzle is. The funny thing was that each piece fitted the other, which is the most bizarre situation because all of us know with jigsaws, two pieces fit each other in a unique combination. I couldn't understand what was going on, and so a few times, I tried to make the border, only to give up and keep the pieces back in the box. It was only a 500-piece puzzle and I had done more complex ones before. But this one truly stumped me.

Finally, I went back to the shop one day and asked the shop assistant if she had encountered my problem. Her answer surprised me -- "Oh, she said. With the border, each alternate piece is similar and therefore interchangeable."

Once I knew what the key to the problem was, making the puzzle was a breeze. Whereas I had previously been stuck for weeks, now construction of the puzzle was easy!  I had found the key.

It made me realize how important keys are to unlocking solutions and accelerating the completion of the assignments God gives us.

And so this passage from Torrey on prayer really struck a deep chord:

"When men and women are on praying ground and meeting the conditions of prevailing prayer, prayer will have as much power today as it ever had. God has not changed; His ear is just as quick to hear the voice of real prayer, and His hand is just as long and strong to save, as it ever was.

Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God's infinite grace and power. But we must use the key. Prayer can do anything that God can do, and because God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. No one can stand against the man who knows how to pray, and meets all the conditions of prevailing prayer, and who really prays. The Lord God omnipotent works for and through that man."