"I have never felt the Holy Spirit before I came in here," confessed one of the ladies in the Bible study. I was in my block and I actually felt Him there.
"Which block were you in?" I wanted to know.
"Four."
I was not surprised when she told me this. It was the very block I had asked for prayer a few weeks before. A group of intercessory pray-ers told me that they would pray for the women, and specifically for block four because that is where we had been having so many problems.
Some people believe that prayer is wishful thinking. We want it to be so, so it is. I had never told the inmates that I was asking for specific prayers for them. I had never mentioned a certain number block.
Some people think that prayer is a useless exercise. After all, the argument goes, why does God need us to pray. Doesn't He already know what's going to happen?
I have wondered that myself. Many "experts" of prayer have weighed in on the subject, and one of my favorites is E. M Bounds.
He says,
"Prayer is no little thing, no selfish and small matter. It does not concern the petty interests of one person. the littlest prayer broadens out by the will of God till it touches all words, conserves all interests, and enhances man's greatest wealth, and God's greatest good. God is so concerned that men pray that he has promised to answer prayer. He has not promised to do something general, if we pray, but He has promised to do the very thing for which we pray."
I don't know why we must pray, but we must pray. It is required of us, believers -- and it is a privelege and a delight.
I am thankful that there are people who pray for those in jail and those caught up in addictions.
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