Before the Civil War between the States erupted, Gen.
Robert McAllister was a railroad executive. When the first shots were fired,
McAllister left his fortune and joined the Union Army. He quickly rose to the
rank of General and led his regiment through some of the fiercest fighting the
War had to offer—like the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At
Gettysburg, McAllister was wounded and carried off the field. After a four-month
convalescence, McAllister returned to the front lines and when the end of the conflict
came at Appomattox, he was there.
McAllister was not just a battle-hardened soldier, but he
was devout man of God who loved his wife. During his time on the battlefield he
wrote some nine hundred letters home describing his experiences in The War. On
April 11, 1864, he wrote his wife, Ellen: “One day I was riding out to hunt a
safe place to fire at a target. I rode up on a little bluff; and as I reached
the summit, I heard a voice. On looking down into a stone quarry I saw two of
our boys earnestly engaged in prayer. I turned away as quietly as possible, thinking
how delightful it was to find such deep religious feeling in my regiment.”
Finding a quiet place, McAllister dismounted and made a
crude altar to beseech the Lord. He wrote, “I bowed down by the root of a tree
and thanked God for His protecting care over me and my regiment that day and
asked continuance of it through the day that was about to dawn upon us.”[1]
Times of war and want have a way of driving people to their
knees. The reality is that we as soldiers in the Lord’s army are in an ongoing
spiritual battle no less real as the one McAllister faced. Writing about this
cosmic conflict Paul said that one of our greatest weapons was prayer, “12 For
we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having
done all, to stand firm . . . 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with
all prayer and supplication.” (Eph. 6:12-13, 18)
Each one of us needs a cleft, closet, altar or foxhole to
retreat to so what we might fight the battle on our knees. David penned some of
his prayers while holed-up in caves (Psalm 34, 57, 142). Three times a day Daniel
prayed near an open window facing towards Jerusalem with enemies eavesdropping
(Dan. 6:10). The Apostles gathered in the Upper Room to pray, as they awaited the
promised power of the Holy Spirit to arrive (Acts 1:13-14). Moreover, Jesus
often retreated from the crowds to pray (Mark 1:35). Think of it—if Jesus, the
sinless Son of God, needed prayer then how much more do we?!
Do you have a quiet place to read, pray and worship? If
not, then its time you find one. I have come to realize that the height of our
ministry can only rise according to the depth of our prayer lives. If we are
prayerless then we will be powerless. Vance Havner wrote, “There is no work
more likely to crowd out the quiet hour than the very work that draws its
strength from the quiet hour.”[2]
-DM
[1]
David Jeremiah, “The Cleft of the Rock,” Turning Points, 13 June 2019,
p.39.
[2]
Dennis J. Hester, The Vance Havner Quote Book (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker,
1986), 181.
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