Taking a Knee on the Field - In Prayer
In the opening game of 2023's Monday Night Football, the Buffalo Bills took to the field against the Cincinnati Bengals. Among the players was Bills’ safety, 24 year old Damar Hamlin. At 9:05, the ball in play, Hamlin tackled Bengals’ receiver Tee Higgins, then suddenly collapsed on the field in full cardiac arrest. Fans and players stood in stunned disbelief as team medical personnel and EMS first responders performed CPR for more than 9 minutes to revive and stabilize him enough to be able to remove him from the field, then transfer him to the hospital where he remained in critical condition.
Ultimately, play was suspended. Yet something amazing happened, both on and off the field. America collectively took a knee — in PRAYER!
Pastor and evangelist Dave Kistler, founder and leader of H.O.P.E. Ministries International, made this powerful observation:
The world of social media, in fact the world in general, is abuzz over Damar Hamlin’s collapse on the field last evening. Thankfully, quick responding sports physicians were able to perform aggressive CPR and evidently get Hamlin’s heart beating after a reported cardiac arrest.
Photos have flooded Facebook, including pics of stunned and weeping players and coaches. But, none deserves more attention than the one of players from both teams KNEELING in unified and energetic prayer as the ambulance carried Damar Hamlin from the field.
Over the course of the last 11 hours, the requests for prayer from fans, players, coaches, and even sports broadcasters and media pundits have absolutely flooded social and mainstream media.
My dad used to say, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Evidently, there are no atheists amid a stunningly frightening incident like the world witnessed last night in Cincinnati.
Coach Joe Kennedy of the Bremerton High School in Bremerton, WA must be smiling right now, not for his recent religious freedom win at the Supreme Court only, but for the glaringly obvious fact that human beings’ first and correct response in tragedy is to turn to God.
That response occurred last night on a global stage and NO ONE could stop it! No Freedom From Religion Foundation staffer complained, no “separation of church and state” advocate protested. NO ONE wanted to!
Kistler concluded:
The seriousness of the event demanded nothing less than earnest, aggressive, and united prayer - prayer to a God who cares and loves, and prayer that has been answered, as Damar Hamlin is alive with reported normal vitals, though in VERY serious condition.
Human beings everywhere, especially God-deniers, would do well to recognize that there is a God-shaped void in all of us - a void that no amount of athleticism (and I’m ALL for health, exercise, and fitness) money, fame, pleasure, or notoriety can fill!!!
... [Man] DESPERATELY NEEDS the comfort of God found ONLY in the God of all comfort - Jesus Christ! Mankind needs a relationship with Jesus for life here on earth, but more importantly for eternity!
"Pray without ceasing," (1 Thessalonians 5:17, ESV).
"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need," (Hebrews 4:16, ESV).
Her Closet Was Her Refuge
42-year-old Sefa Cebeci was with her husband in a seven-story building in Duzce, Turkey, when just before 7:00 P.M. local time on November 12, 1999, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook the city. The building collapsed, and when all was said and done nearly 1,000 people were dead—including Sefa’s husband who was right beside her.
Despite rescue team leaders from some countries calling off the search for survivors after three days, an Israeli team pulled her from the rubble after nearly 5 days without food and water. She would have to have an arm amputated and her kidney failure from dehydration nearly killed her.
She was able to survive in freezing temperatures for 105 hours under tons of concrete. How? A closet fell on top of her and protected her from her collapsed house. Her closet became her refuge.
Of course, Jesus exhorted us to “enter into thy closet” to pray, rather make a vain, public show of ourselves (cf. Matthew. 6:6, KJV). The word “closet,” variously translated “inner room,” “your room,” “private room,” and “inner chamber” is translated “storehouse” or “warehouse” (Luke 12:24; Matthew. 24:26), and also “bedroom” or “chamber” (Genesis 43:30; 2 Kings 6:12; Zodhiates, Spiros). It refers to any place of privacy where one cannot be easily seen.
If we are to survive the challenges of life, we must seek refuge in our prayer closet. The peace and strength we find there will prepare us for every kind of calamity.
Praying In The Wrong Direction
The Daily Mail reports that worshipers at a mosque in Turkey have been praying in the wrong direction for 37 YEARS! According to one news outlet, the mosque was built facing the wrong direction in 1981.
To make matters worse, it is believed that this was the result of it being built based on the original mosque, which would mean that these worshipers have not been praying in the direction of Mecca, as prescribed, even longer than previously thought.
As Christians, we understand that it doesn't really matter what direction we face when we pray. God is everywhere. Rather, it's our earnest determination to seek God and to know His will that Jesus promised to bless when He said, "Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).
We pray in the wrong direction when we pray for the wrong things, or when we pray for the right things but with the wrong motives. We pray in the wrong direction whenever we seek our will instead of God's.
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us" (1 John 5:14).