“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” - Jeremiah 29:12 (NIV).

The Bible is a book that records man’s struggle against overwhelming odds. In the process it also provides ways how we can respond whenever faced with situations that appear beyond our control.  A case in point is, when finally let go from Egypt, the Israelites encountered a harsh desert, live with snakes, and well – positioned armed warrior tribes waiting to attack (Exodus 17).

Their journey was quite similar to the story of building the East African railway in 1895, to provide good passage from the coast to Uganda. At one point construction became almost impossible. The railway had to wade through warrior tribes like the Nandi and Masai who battled it all the way. And then it met the male lions of Tsavo  that killed over 100 workers.

While the British relied on their guns to wage through dangerous territory, it was a different case for the Israelis who at one point run out of water. When they attacked Moses, blaming him unfairly, he had turned to God. He heard his cry for help and told him, “Go out in front of the people….take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.  I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink” (Exodus 17: 5-6).

In a later battle with the Amalekites, Moses was asked to hold the staff of God in his hand, and, “as long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning” (v 11).

The raising up of Moses hands here symbolizes the importance of prayer when faced with dangerous situations. “When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.” (vv 13-14).

What situation are you facing? Does it appear impossible? What dangerous territory are you going through? Are all enemies ganging up on you. You may not have their kind of gun; but in your hands lies the most powerful weapon there is. And that is the power of prayer. Use it.

Prayer for today: Lord Father God, creator of heaven and earth, faced with a situation that appears impossible, I turn to you in prayer, for victory, this I pray in Jesus’s name!