There probably is no force known to mankind more powerful than prayer, so why don't we use it more often?

I received an e-mail this week which I am told has been circulating for four years now. With the message came the following request: “If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends. `If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything!'”

You are my friends. So, after calling Wichita, Kans., talking with a secretary at the church where Joe Wright is senior pastor and confirming the facts of the message, here is the e-mail message for you to ponder and pass it on to your friends.

“When minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your word says, `Woe to those who call evil good' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that.

“We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it pluralism;

“We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism;

“We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle;

“We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery; “We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare;

“We have killed our unborn and called it choice;

“We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable;

“We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem;

“We have abused power and called it politics;

“We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition;

“We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression;

“We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

“Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of your will. I ask this in the name of your Son, the living savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.'

“The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In six short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church has received international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

“With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called one nation under God.”

There is little or nothing I can say to add to this prayer, except to ask, if you believe with me that there is no force known to mankind more powerful than prayer, then why don't we use it more often?

There are those of us who often claim that prayer does not change things; it changes us. It changes the one who prays. The one who approaches the throne of almighty God and cannot walk away unchanged. And that's true. One cannot talk to God and not be affected.

But prayer also changes things. I know that it does. I cannot prove that it does. I cannot convince any other being of the power of prayer. Even when one hears a prayer being offered up to God and watches events unfold in direct answer to that prayer, even then there are those who will rationalize the whole scenario. I've been there. I know.

I've also prayed, that is, communed with God, and watched miracles unfold after participating in such a powerful act. And I have stood in absolute awe and indescribable wonderment while observing the forces that come into play when prayer is the catalyst. So, again, I know.

Please pass on to others the words of this prayer prayed by a courageous Kansas minister in 1996, but do so only after you have prayed them yourself, and added to the force. Perhaps this little prayer can be like a little windstorm that picks up more and more force as it blows around the country and the world. And maybe, just maybe it can make an impact during this election year.

Remember, and remember well, “If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything!”

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