“In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me” - Psalm 120 (NIV)

There was once a case of a certain unbelieving teacher at a certain school who was at pains to understand why a group of his students would raise their voice and cry out to the Almighty God for help in some situations. The teacher accosted the “praying warriors” and shut down their meeting. “Is your God hard of hearing that you must raise so much noise!” He sent them packing.

The teacher might indeed have had a point. The Almighty God reigns everywhere and even before we open our mouths He has heard our prayers. Jesus, once advised, “But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Mathew 6:6-7). Certainly, there is a case for a quiet and reflective prayer.

However, there also those situations of deep agony, that one’s prayer cannot be one quiet appeal. Think of a plane that is going down and about to crash; of course, there are those who will pray quietly for rescue, but some others will open up their mouths and cry out to the Almighty for his deliverance.

Once when the disciples realized they were perishing at sea, as “a windstorm came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (Luke 8:23-24). That could not have been a quiet and gentle plea. A childless Hannah wept bitterly as she pleaded to the Lord to bless her with a child (I Samuel 1:10).

There are certain times and situations when our prayers cannot be quiet and reflective muses. A people under attack do not meow when lives are perishing. They rise up and call upon the Almighty to come for their deliverance. And the times of the sweeping Covid-19 pandemic are the kind where individuals along with the church, there needs to be those who rise up and cry out for the deliverance of the Lord!

Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, today we as a people, cry out to you, for deliverance from this plague of Covid-19, that you come and with your powerful hand that parted the Red Sea, stay its havoc, and bring healing to the land, this I pray in Jesus’s name.