I remember the cold, dark room and my yearning for the warmth of day. Black-out paper covered the doorway next to me, protecting the space against an inevitable dawn. I sat motionless in a midnight as black as pitch. I dreamt, but it felt very real.
Although my surroundings offered no hope, my heart remained calm. Fear lurked in the shadows and whispered in the unknown, yet I knew no anxiety. As I waited, awareness shifted as dreams will do, and I realized I held a long, slender hat pin in hand. This, I knew, was the key to my emancipation.
Urged by an unseen prompting, I plunged the pin’s tip into the papered doorway. With no glass on the other side of the portal, my nib pierced through the parchment, sending a pinpoint of light spilling into the room.
Reaching out again, I perforated the blackness, first at one corner of the doorway and then at the next. Each time, another small prick of light broke through.
Soon, I realized I could make the existing holes bigger by concentrating my jabs closer together. As I did so, friends emerged from the shadows of the dark room, each equipped with their own small pins. Working in tandem, we strategically focused our movements on the middle of the dark parchment, and soon the entire center broke away.
As blinding radiance poured into the room, we realized we hadn’t been the only power weakening the black-out covering. On the opposite side, the strength of the sunlight deteriorated the papery veil so that our pricks could penetrate. Soon, the opening was large enough to step through.
When I emerged into the warmth of the sunlight, I suddenly awoke to ponder the significance of the dream.
Prayer is much like the straight pins. As Christians, each of us holds power to puncture the darkness. Like my initial stabs, we often have no real direction and feel our prayers have little influence on the evil around us.
Yet, when we concentrate our prayers with specificity and importunity, even the tininess effort reveals Light. Our prayers encourage others to join us, and soon we find that even a bit of Light will lead to more Light (Psalm 36:9).
Although our world seems grim, God has given us a pinpointed weapon to let in His Light. This weapon of prayer is ideally suited for use in the dark since all we need to activate it is a groan (Romans 8:26). Divinely powerful enough to pierce through any darkness, the efficiency of intercession only intensifies when we concentrate our efforts together.
Begin by inviting His Light to shine upon your heart. Ask that His Kingdom come, and His will be done inside of you just like it is already being done in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). Expose yourself to Light, so we can be that lampstand that “gives light to all who are in the house” (Matthew 5:15).
Then make 2023 the year of joining others in precise, consolidated prayer. Start a prayer group if you can’t find one. And look for me. I’ll meet you at the darkest door.