A City Prays Together
Can people praying in one accord affect a whole city?
Yes, it happened in the early church on the day of Pentecost. But it also happened during World War II in in Seadrift, Texas, a small community located on the Gulf Coast, which at that time had less than 500 people.
At the suggestion of a local pastor, a group of wives, mothers and men met at the First Assembly of God Church every morning at ten to pray for the safety of the servicemen from their community.
Members brought photos of each soldier and made a huge, framed collage of the men—52 in all. The picture provided a prayer focus point. One mother had five sons in the war. Imagine how she felt when she looked at the large picture of men in uniform and prayed for her precious boys among them.
After the war was over in 1945, every single serviceman came home alive from whatever theater of war he served in.
Fifty years later in 1995, I watched a Christian television program where some of these intercessors and several of the servicemen—all quite elderly then—were interviewed. One woman said, “We didn’t just pray at ten in the morning. We prayed night and day for those men.”
Another commented, “We stood on the ninety-first Psalm, reading it every time we met. We prayed at the church; we prayed at home. It seemed like we had that burden and it just stayed with us.”
Several of the men who had served their country commented: “All the people in the city here prayed. If somebody had not prayed for us, I don’t think a lot of us would have made it back. We knew God was going to take care of us with our mothers and everybody here at the church praying.”
Other men gave testimonies of their narrow escapes in combat and how they knew they were spared because they believed God answered the prayers of those faithful dedicated intercessors.
The united wall of support from folks in Seadrift demonstrated how prayer partners from various walks of life can gather to pray in unity with a mutual purpose and faith that God answers our prayers. 1
Prayer: Lord, thank You for this example of Christians coming together, united in their prayer effort, to pray for those in their community who were off defending our nation. Help Christians throughout our country awake to the need to intercede today for the many troubling situations facing their communities today. May a prayer movement rise up and increase across our homeland. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Scripture: Here is Psalm 91 that those praying intercessors in Seadrift prayed daily:
“ He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday… Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone… He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.” (Psalm 91:1-6, 9-12, 15 NKJV)
- Quin Sherrer and Ruthanne Garlock, Lord, I Need to Pray With Power, (Lake Mary, FL., Charisma House, 2007), 111- 122.
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