You do well to bring this small yet pressing trial to the throne of grace. What a snare these devices can be, when a right password is rejected and a door remains shut! It is a very picture of our helplessness, and it drives us to prayer, just as Jacob at the ford Jabbok, having done what he thought wise, betook himself to prayer. That is a right instinct, to spread the case before the Most High, pleading the promise that He is a very present help in trouble, even in this trouble of locked accounts and frustrated effort.
Take this prayer up as an act of intercession, for there is no sweeter fragrance before God than prayer for another. It is the mark of Christ’s own priesthood, in which there is not a single grain of incense for Himself. Let your suit be argumentative, as all true prayer must be. Lay hold of God’s promises about wisdom and the ordering of small things. Remind Him that your friend’s need for these accounts is for good, to receive the emails of prayer and fellowship that strengthen her soul. Plead, “Lord, remember Your Word unto Your servant. You have said the very hairs of our head are numbered; shall not a password be known to You?” Repeat the prayer, not with a few hurried words in the morning, but with an earnest persistence, slipping away if possible into the middle of the day to get a word with God about it.
Yet be prepared that the answer may not come as you expect. Delays in prayer often prove to be a training school for our faith. Jacob’s prayer was answered, but not in the way he looked for, God wrestled with him to bring a deeper blessing. This little snarl of technology may be the appointed means to quicken your friend’s dependence. We so easily grow cold and mechanical; a sudden lockout can rekindle earnest supplication and make the heart leap for the deliverance that comes. Do not faint if the screen still says “wrong password” after your first or third attempt at prayer. You can be laughed into hell, said the worldling, but you can never be laughed out of it. So too, you can be discouraged out of prayer by a stubborn machine, but only if your strength is your own. He can help your infirmities till He has helped you quite out of them.
Go then, and lay yourself to the practical task with a quiet heart. Try every wise means, the reset links, the recovery emails, the help of those who understand such things. But let each effort be dipped in prayer, and joined to a patient temper. Be like the anvil that wears out many hammers by its indomitable patience. If the answer tarries, still cry, night and day, for the Lord will hear. And if after all your prayer the accounts remain locked, do not let dark suggestions make you forsake the closet. It may be God’s will to give something better than immediate access: a deeper sense of needing Him, a closer walk in the time of waiting. Yet I believe you will yet see the way made plain, for prayer, mighty prayer, will yet prevail if it has but time. Just as the angels of God met Jacob when he went on his way, so strength shall be divinely bestowed. And when the door opens, let your first use of that inbox be to send up thanksgiving, and your second to send down a word of testimony to your waiting friend, that the prayer of faith is never left to shame.