Jonathan Graf

The Apostle Paul gives an interesting picture of prayer in 2 Corinthians 1:8-11. He talks to the Corinthian believers about all the hardships he has been through on the missionary trip which he and his team have taken. He says: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this...

Longtime Presbyterian minister Dr. Wilbur Chapman (early 1900s) was 26 when called to be pastor of Wanamakers Church in Philadelphia. His first Sunday, an old gentleman came up to him and said, “You’re much too young to be the pastor of such a fine church as this.” Chapman thought the guy was a kook. The older gentleman went on to tell him that he and another gentleman had decided to pray for him—that the Holy Spirit’s power would fall on him each time he stepped into the pulpit. Chapman...

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