Prayer meetings can get you down. No matter how much you look forward to gathering with friends to pray, the requests can be disheartening. A missionary is having health problems. A child has cancer. A couple from your Sunday school class is getting a divorce. The missionary appointee is having difficulty raising financial support. And you have struggles of your own. The more requests you hear, the more weary you grow.

But then a mighty prayer warrior begins to pray. With confidence, he thanks God for His absolute control over all things. With tears, he pleads with God to work in the lives of those for whom prayer is requested. With honesty, he acknowledges that we don't always understand what God is doing. Like the psalmist, he turns a time of complaining over man's problems into a time of praising God for His listening ear. Prayer turns to praise because one saint believes that the Lord hears "the prayer of the destitute, and shall not despise their prayer" (Psalm 102:17).

Are you struggling with difficulties in your own life or the overwhelming problems of dear friends and loved ones? Learn to hand them over to the everlasting God. That's how to drive away those prayer-meeting blues.  — Dave Branon