A good time for family prayers might be after the evening news on television. At this time, not only could we pray for our families and friends and local problems, but we could bring to the Lord the various crises and events portrayed on the screen.

If each evening, as the newscast concluded, a great wave of prayer across the world could ascend to God on behalf of those in trouble and those making trouble, what a difference it might make! We could pray by name not only for individuals involved, but also for each network newscaster and commentator. The greater the diameter of our knowledge of human needs, the larger will be the circumference of our petitions.

As J. Sidlow Baxter once said, “Men may spurn our appeal, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.”