According to S.D. Gordon in Quiet Talks on Prayer,* the outlets of Power are Being, Speaking, Doing, and Giving, but the greatest outlet of Power is Prayer.

Gordon writes, “The power of a life touches just one spot, but the touch is tremendous … yet its power is limited to one spot where it is being lived. Power through the lips depends wholly upon the life back of the lips…. Power through service may be great, and may be touching many spots, yet it is always less than that of a life. Power through money depends wholly upon the motive back of the money…. But the power loosened out through prayer … may touch not one spot but wherever in the whole round world you may choose to turn it.”

The outlets of “being, speaking, doing, and giving,” are limited by time and space. We can only be in one place at time. While technology enables us to be heard beyond our location, technology also allows listeners to turn us off or ignore us.

Prayer is the only power that can reach a son or daughter in a dangerous situation, or in another hemisphere; prayer is the only power that cannot be turned off by friends who brush aside our efforts to lead them to Christ; prayer can heal bodies and minds and give hope when all medical help has been exhausted; prayer can supply daily needs when money has vanished.

Gordon said, “The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to pray. It is not the only thing. But it is the chief thing…. The great people of the earth today are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these people who take time and pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and pressing, but still less important and less pressing than prayer.  There are people that put prayer first, and group the other items in life’s schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God.”

Martha Hawn VanCise©

Quiet Talks on Prayer by S.D. Gordon is now in public domain. You may download it and other great religious classics at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13196/13196-h/13196-h.htm#ch01-1