This short paragraph from a book I just started reading recently contains a wonderful little anecdote about prayer. The paragraph is taken from Joel Beeke’s new book entitled, Taking Hold of God: Reformed and Puritan Perspectives on Prayer:

“A man once set up a tavern next door to a church. The wild parties, late-night hours, sinful indulgence, and morning refuse from the bar so distressed the church that people prayed God would intervene. He did. A tornado took out the tavern and left the church untouched. The tavern owner took the church to court, claiming his loss was due to the congregation’s prayers. Church members claimed innocence, saying that they had no responsibility in the tavern’s destruction. The judge marveled that an unbeliever seemed to believe in the power of prayer more than the church folk did!” (p. 238)

This little book contains twelve chapters. I read the last one first since it is a compilation of various authors on prayer. The authors deal with Calvin, Knox, Perkins, Burgess, Bunyan, Matthew Henry, Thomas Boston, and Jonathan Edwards on prayer along with a few other chapters related to prayer. The last chapter is written by Beeke entitled, “Prayerful Praying Today.” Hopefully (DV), I will be able to put up a book review sometime in the future.