"So, whatever you do, don't go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that's coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36, Message).

ne Sabbath morning last February the preacher at an urban Seventh-day Adventist church in North America felt impressed to call the people together to pray. On the spur of the moment he invited the congregation to come out the following Tuesday night, not for a prayer meeting, but just to pray.

Tuesday evening more than 750 people streamed into the church; they had to open the balcony.

Since then the prayer gatherings have continued unbroken every week, with a steady audience of 100-150. Nonmembers are coming, and the church has been revived.

These Adventists are rediscovering the simplest, most basic--but most overlooked--power today: prayer. They are finding that prayer works, that God does hear and answer, that He will draw preciously near and change everything if we take the time to invite Him, presenting our love and thanksgiving along with sincere, honest requests.

Only this power will get us through the last times. "Pray constantly," Jesus counseled His followers as He outlined the course of events leading up to His second coming. We have come to extraordinary times-I do not know how close we are to Jesus' return, but these days are unprecedented-and must be people of extraordinary prayer if we are to survive them.

In times like these, where would we turn without God? How could we survive, summon the will to hope?

But God is alive and well. He alone is our security and our hope. He is still the same-the God who gave His only Son to die on the cross for us that we might not die eternally but have everlasting life. Jesus, our Savior, is Lord of time and space, and Lord of the church. We are safe in His hands.

Let's make time, real time for Him, individually and in gatherings. Let's pray as did His disciples: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Let's make it our heart's desire that our lives be bathed in prayer and all our living-at home, at work, at school-be open to His leading.

Let's pray for ourselves. "Be on your guard," Jesus said. "Don't let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it's going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once" (Luke 21:34, 35, Message).

Let's pray for the children. For our children and grandchildren. For the kids and youth of the church. The temptations to wrongdoing that they face are enormous and all-pervasive. Satan would seek to keep them constantly on the go, bombard their eyes with images and fill their ears with sound so that the Spirit finds no moment of quiet to get through to them.

Let's pray for our leaders. For the leaders of the nation, of course, but also our spiritual leaders. They bear heavy burdens, and only prayer can sustain them. Pray for your pastor. Pray for your conference administrators. Pray for your union conference leaders. Pray for those at the division level. Pray for Pastor Paulsen and his team at the world headquarters.

And fellow leaders, let's give ourselves to prayer. "Those who do not learn every day in the school of Christ, who do not spend much time in earnest prayer, are not fit to handle the work of God in any of its branches; for if they do, human depravity will surely overcome them, and they will lift up their souls unto vanity" (Testimonies to Ministers, p. 169). "Only the work accomplished with much prayer, and sanctified by the merit of Christ, will in the end prove to have been efficient for good" (The Desire of Ages, p. 362).

Finally, let's pray for one another. Let's bear each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Pray. Pray fervently. Pray confidently in the name of Jesus. Pray constantly.

Pray.

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William G. Johnsson is the Editor of the Adventist Review.