This morning I participated in the third annual “Farmers Prayer Breakfast” just South East of Albany, Oregon. I am guessing that there was about 1,000 there at the event. There was a free breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and bacon with lots of coffee at 7:00 am. At 8:00 until 9:00 there was a series of farmers who prayed on the stage with a microphone for different subjects related to farming. I got to be one of the prayers because I am an ex-farmer. It was a great experience, and a great picture of unity in that there were dozens of churches represented at the event. It was tremendously encouraging to me in that I have such a high view of the power of prayer, especially unified, corporate prayer. It was great to see that many people gathered together to pray for our country and for their own livelihood. The motto of the event this year was “You can complain or you can pray.”

It is interesting to me that so many people give lip service to prayer, but so few people really pray with any degree of sacrifice, diligence, or importunity. Token praying is when we give God a little leftover time, convenient time, a time that costs us nothing, and expect that God is going to honor and answer that prayer.

God is a great, all-powerful God who honors those who make sacrifices for Him, who are diligent, and lay their lives down for Him. He uses them, He blesses them, He listens to them, and He gives them power. They are the Daniels, the Davids, the Joshuas, and the Moseses.

Jesus put it this way, “There is the narrow way and the broad way, the hard way and the easy way, few choose the hard way, and it ends with success, many choose the easy way, but it ends in failure.”