“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3, N.K.J.V.)

The organist was trying to play the call-to-worship song to begin the church service, but no sound was coming from the organ. Everyone in the congregation could tell there was a problem, but no one knew what to do about it. Thinking fast, the pastor went to the pulpit and began praying a very lengthy prayer in order to provide the necessary time for someone to fix the organ.

As the pastor prayed, the church custodian hurriedly made his way to the organ and went to work diagnosing the problem. Looking at the power outlet that was located in the nearby wall, he noticed that the organ’s power chord had come unplugged from the outlet. So, he reached down and plugged the chord back into the outlet.

With the pastor still praying, the custodian then quickly scribbled something onto a little piece of paper and handed it to the frantic organist. The note said: “After the prayer, the power will be on.” Well, you know where I’m going with that, don’t you? Obviously, those words are good advice for us, as Christians, because until we make prayer a regular part of our day, we’ll never have much spiritual power upon our lives.

I used to play a lot of slow-pitch softball. Sometimes, when one of my teammates would miss out on hitting a homerun because the ball got caught just a few feet in front of the fence, we would jokingly say to him, “Pay your power bill.” That was a funny line, but there’s certainly nothing funny about the fact that many Christians are seeing their efforts fall short because they’ve not paid their spiritual power bills. And how does a Christian pay his or her spiritual power bill? There is only one way to do it. That Christian must spend quality time in prayer.

Be honest, Christian, how’s your prayer life these days? If it is lacking, let me encourage you to get alone by yourself somewhere and just start talking to God. Praise Him for everything good that is happening in your life. Thank Him for the numerous blessings He has bestowed upon you through the years. Confess your sins to Him. Dedicate yourself to repenting of those sins. Tell Him about your troubles. Lastly, make your requests to Him, being sure to tell Him that if a request isn’t His will, you don’t actually want it even though you think you do.

God doesn’t want you to come up short in your efforts for Him. Much to the contrary, He wants His inexhaustible power flowing into you, through you, and out from you. But that won’t happen until you plug in your power chord by getting down to the business of doing some personal, prolific praying. Remember, praying isn’t a chore you have to perform; it’s a privilege you get to enjoy.