Wall of Prayer

Let the priests take it to them, every man of his acquaintance: and let them repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever and breach shall be found.

2 Kings 12: 5

A God-Fearing Armenian Christian was sending some merchandise to a distant city. There were no railroads in that part of the country, and as it was a valuable lot of goods the merchant himself accompanied the caravan.

Such caravans usually camp at night, and this is an opportune time for highwaymen who make their living by attacking caravans, to steal unnoticed upon the campers. At the chosen time, under cover of the night, the Kurds drew near. All was strangely silent. There seemed to be no guards. But as they pressed closer, imagine their astonishment to find high walls where walls had never stood before. The next night they found the same impassable walls. On the third night they found the same walls, but there were breaches in them through which the robbers entered. The captain of the marauding band was so terrified by the mystery that he woke up the Armenian, asking what it meant. He told how his band had followed intent on robbing them; how they found the high walls around the caravan on the first and second nights; but on this night they had been able to enter through the breaches. “If you will tell us the secret of all this, we will not harm you,” said the captain.

The merchant himself was puzzled. “My friends,” he said, “I have done nothing to have walls raised about us. All I do is pray every evening, committing myself and those with me to God. I fully trust in Him to keep me from all evil; but tonight, being very tired and sleepy, I made a rather half-hearted prayer. That must be why you were allowed to break through.”

The Kurds were overcome by this testimony. Then and there they accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. But the Armenian never forgot the breach in the wall of prayer.

• excerpted from from Springs in the Valley (1968) by Cowman Publications, Inc.

There are walls made by man built by frail and human hands
That an enemy can scale and get to you.
But there is one protecting me from my greatest enemy
It’s a wall that Satan can’t break through.

Sometimes a wall of grace sometimes a wall of faith
Other times it’s sweet mercy that I need.
But the one for which I long it makes all the others strong.
I need a wall of prayer surrounding me.

Oh my brother when I’m weak would you stand instead for me
And pray a fortress ’round me strong that can’t be moved.
And I promise you today when I bow my knees to pray
I’ll do my best to build a wall of prayer for you.

Wall of Prayer by Eddie / Street