Samson delivers a powerful 21-word prayer that catches my attention.

Then Samson became very thirsty, so he called to the Lord and said, “You gave me this great victory; am I now going to die of thirst and be captured by these heathen Philistines?” – Judges 15:18  GNT

It speaks to me about who Samson is and about his relationship with God. There was a note of humility in this prayer compared to the choice of words he used just a few verses earlier. I loved the language of honour/shame used in this prayer too. He chose to exalt God as God – His power, His person, and His preeminence.

What makes the prayer so dramatic is God’s response.

Then God opened a hollow place in the ground there at Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank it and began to feel much better. So the spring was named Hakkore;^[d] it is still there at Lehi. – Judges 15:19  GNT

 Samson prayed, God heard, and God responded. I am beautifully encouraged and reminded that God hears and answers my prayer.

This was real, and the real thing can always call out the fake.

Jeremiah had to do this on a regular basis. I tried to discern what was missing in this sham prophecy.

That same year,^[a] in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king, Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple. In the presence of the priests and of the people he told me that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said: “I have broken the power of the king of Babylonia. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the Temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylonia. I will also bring back the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, along with all of the people of Judah who went into exile in Babylonia. Yes, I will break the power of the king of Babylonia. I, the Lord, have spoken.” – Jeremiah 28:1-4  GNT

It sounded good and it made the people who were listening very happy. It did sound a bit “religious” and with too much confidence in regards to prosperity. I say that because there was something missing that needed to be there – where was the counsel that God usual gives in regards to repentance, reform, returning to Him, to prayer, seeking His face and the understanding that all of these actions would prepare them for the favour God would give them?

Then in the presence of the priests and of all the people who were standing in the Temple, I said to Hananiah, “Wonderful! I hope the Lord will do this! I certainly hope he will make your prophecy come true and will bring back from Babylonia all the Temple treasures and all the people who were taken away as prisoners. But listen to what I say to you and to the people. The prophets who spoke long ago, before my time and yours, predicted that war, starvation, and disease would come to many nations and powerful kingdoms. But a prophet who predicts peace can only be recognized as a prophet whom the Lord has truly sent when that prophet’s predictions come true.” – Jeremiah 28:5-9  GNT

This pretended prophecy was one of good will but it lacked an element of intercession for the people – it omitted and depreciated the judgement and the future judgements of walking away from God. A false prophet will give in to the temptation of ingratiating themselves to people by promising peace and there was no gurantee whatsoever of it. May I not find myself yielding to the flatter and especially not persecuting that one giving me the greatest gift of telling me the truth and interceding on my behalf.

So any unperverted mind will conceive of the scriptural idea of prayer, as that of one of the most downright, sturdy realities in the universe. Right in the heart of God’s plan of government it is lodged as a power. Amidst the conflicts which are going in the evolution of that plan, it stands as a power. Into all the intricacies of Divine working and the mysteries of Divine decree, it reaches out silently as a power. In the mind of God, we may be assured, the conception of prayer is no fiction, whatever man may think of it. – Austin Phelps