Sun, 23 June 2019
One of the greatest atrocities of World War II occurred in the Russian metropolis of Leningrad. The Nazi army besieged the massive city cutting off supply routes. “Leningrad must die of starvation,” Hitler declared in a speech at Munich on November 8, 1941. Estimates are that more than 1.5 million people starved to death across the 900 days of the siege for lack of adequate food.
One group of Russians who starved was particularly noteworthy. They were botanists and scientists who worked in a seed bank called the “Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry.” They barricaded themselves in the vaults of that facility with rooms full of rice, corn, oates, and potatoes. They did so to protect the “seeds” from the hungry citizens and marauding Germans. They had the food resources to live at their fingertips but died of starvation.
I suppose you would class it a heroic tragedy. It was heroic that they died to preserve seeds for a better day; but it was tragic that they died unnecessarily. They had untapped resources within reach.
Could it be that we have all the resources that we need within reach, yet suffer for lack of them? Absolutely! Prayer is such a resource! It puts heaven’s supplies at our disposal but so often we do not take advantage of them. We do not pray as we ought! Someone has rightly said, “Nothing is outside the reach of prayer except that which is outside the will of God.”
Jesus wants us to avail ourselves of heaven’s supplies. God forbid that we fail to have what is needed because we have failed to pray. What a tragedy that would be!
This Sunday morning we will look at a “primer on prayer” as Jesus teaches us to pray in Matthew 6:5-15. Join us at Istrouma!
Culture Flip “A Primer on Prayer” Matthew 6:5-15
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