Does Prayer Work at all?
"Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine" (NLT) Luke 22:42
Does God listen when we pray? Does He even care about His children? If He does, why are most of our prayers unanswered? Why does He allow bad things to happen to His children? Why does He seem to abandon us when we need Him so badly?
I guess these and more are questions that course through your mind and mine occasionally when we are struck with the realities of ‘unanswered’ prayers. We become awe – stricken and begin to wonder if prayers work at all. Our sense of disillusionment reaches fever – pitch when we see people around us who do not care a hoot about prayers or do not even subscribe to the Christian world view cruising along with breakthroughs. Even more seriously, unanswered prayers can relegate us to the arena of guilt. Even a strong Christian can feel inadequate and may think he has done some evil for which God is punishing him. Like a situation of an unrequited love, an unanswered prayer can break the heart of an erstwhile committed Christian. History abounds in stories of people who rescinded their faith in God because of unanswered prayers. They felt heartbroken because they thought God had abandoned them when they needed Him most. God watched their loved ones to die; God did not help them in their exams; they asked but it was not given to them, they knocked but it did not open, they sought but they never found.
Growing up in the church, I learnt from various preachers and teachers that God answers our prayers in three ways: He can give us exactly what we asked for or more, He can give us less than what we asked for or He can decide not give us anything at all. Generally, the preachers explained that even if one finds himself in the last category, where we get no response to our prayer, it is a form of an answered prayer. They believe that God in His infinite wisdom, whose ways are not our ways believe that perhaps we are not yet ripe for such a blessing or by getting such a blessing, it will eventually turn out to be a curse. If these principles of God in relation to prayer are anything to go by, then it explains that God is not interested in merely giving us exactly what we ask for or more (even though He is more than able) but He is interested in molding us and building our character through our prayer. As Ravi Zacharias aptly puts it, “Prayer is far more complex than some make it out to be. There is much more involved than merely asking for something and receiving it. For every person who feels that prayer has not “worked” for them and has therefore abandoned God, there is someone else for whom prayer remains a vital part of her life, sustaining her even when her prayers have gone unanswered, because her belief and trust is not only in the power of prayer but in the character and wisdom of God.” Like the amniotic fluid that protects the fetus from external shocks, prayer barricades us from the onslaught of the evil one. Our problems may not vanish into thin air, but our prayers will carry us through. “I have absolutely no doubt that if you are a praying Christian, your faith in God is what is carrying you, through both the good times and the hard times. However, if you are not a praying person, you are carrying your faith – you are trying to make your faith work for you apart from your source of power – and trying to carry the infinite is very exhausting (Ravi Zacharias).
I am pleasantly amazed that even Jesus Christ, God the Son, surrendered His will to God the Father in His prayer. “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Luke 22:42, NLT). That seems to be our challenge. We always feel that our prayers are unanswered because we always go to God with what we want but not what God wants for our lives. Our pursuits do not jive with God’s ultimate purpose and will for our lives. Our Master and Savior Jesus Christ had the power to save the world in a revolutionary way. One spoken word and the whole human race will be saved. Yet He chose to do it according to His Father’s will as revealed by the prophets. Simon Peter decided to stand in the way of what God has willed for His Son by slashing off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. But Jesus rebuked him and said He (Jesus) had the power to command a legion of angels to battle for Him but He has allowed his own creatures to capture Him so that what is written about Him will be fulfilled (Matthew 26:50 – 54, Mark 14:46 – 49, John 18:10).
Amazing! Can we come to a point in our prayer lives where we accept unwaveringly that God’s will be done in our lives or we want to straddle the lines and do things half our way and half God’s way? I pray you choose the former because that is the point you will experience the incontrovertible evidence of the power of prayer.
Prayer is an all efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by the clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings …
The potency of prayer hath subdued the strength of fire, it hath bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest; extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt.
Saint John Chrysostom
Hymn – Sweet Hour of Prayer