Recapture the Wonder

by Ravi Zacharias

The early church father John Chrysostom said this of prayer: The potency of prayer hath subdued the strength of fire, it hath bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest; extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt. Prayer is an all-sufficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by the clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.6 We can either dismiss this as mere rhetoric or face the grim fact that prayerlessness is the scavenger of wonder. If prayer is indeed the root, the fountain, and the mother of a thousand blessings, then prayerlessness is the seed and weed of the destruction of a thousand blessings. It is here that we win or lose.