A church in a small town in the south was having a “revival.” Everyone in attendance was shocked when Big Ed, the town’s most notorious carouser and troublemaker showed up. At the end of his sermon the pastor invited all who wanted prayer to come forward. Big Ed immediately responded. The pastor asked him what he wanted prayer for and he said, “Preacher, I want you to pray for my hearing.” So the preacher laid his hands on Big Ed’s ears and beseeched the Great Healer to open those deaf ears. When he finished he asked, “Now Big Ed, how is your hearing?” Big Ed answered, “I don’t know, Preacher. It’s not until next Wednesday at the County Courthouse.”
Obviously prayer didn’t make a difference in that case, but prayer is nevertheless a powerful weapon. James 5:16 says, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Powerful and effective. Sounds great, but maybe we’re not righteous enough to pray effectively like that, right? We need to remember that according to Philippians 3:8-9 we have a righteousness that comes from God through faith. Through faith we have the very righteousness of Jesus Christ as the basis of our prayers! That’s all the righteousness we will ever need. God hears our prayers not because we are so good, but because we have the righteousness of Jesus in his eyes!
Obviously prayer didn’t make a difference in that case, but prayer is nevertheless a powerful weapon. James 5:16 says, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Powerful and effective. Sounds great, but maybe we’re not righteous enough to pray effectively like that, right? We need to remember that according to Philippians 3:8-9 we have a righteousness that comes from God through faith. Through faith we have the very righteousness of Jesus Christ as the basis of our prayers! That’s all the righteousness we will ever need. God hears our prayers not because we are so good, but because we have the righteousness of Jesus in his eyes!
Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen.” God is not only able to do more than we ask, he can do more than we even imagine! He can doimmeasurably more than we imagine. Perhaps our biggest problem is our imagination. We just don’t ask enough. God is glorified when we believe he can and will do great things and ask him to do so.
How do we reconcile our prayers with God’s sovereignty? We don’t. I do not know how those two powerful forces work together. There are some things that are above our pay grade when we deal with an infinite, Almighty God. There is going to be some mystery about him for finite minds. In ways we do not comprehend God uses our prayers to accomplish his will in this world. So we must pray.
Some prayers will be answered “no.” Even Jesus experienced that when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the cup of crucifixion might pass from his hands. Like he did we must always pray, “Not my will, but yours, Father.” But as we pray in submission to the Father we are unleashing an unstoppable force. What power in all of creation can stand against the Almighty God? There is no such power.
Does God really answer prayer? I recently looked through my prayer journal for the past nearly two years. Of the specific requests that could have a verifiable answer, 77% have been answered “yes” by God, 22% are still waiting for an answer, and only 1% of them have been answered “no.” It is almost startling to see how God has fulfilled his promise to answer prayers. Yes, God answers prayer and it makes a difference in this world.
1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” We can have a bigger impact in this world by praying than by anything else that we do! So let’s “draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22) and ask God to do great things in this world!
How do we reconcile our prayers with God’s sovereignty? We don’t. I do not know how those two powerful forces work together. There are some things that are above our pay grade when we deal with an infinite, Almighty God. There is going to be some mystery about him for finite minds. In ways we do not comprehend God uses our prayers to accomplish his will in this world. So we must pray.
Some prayers will be answered “no.” Even Jesus experienced that when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the cup of crucifixion might pass from his hands. Like he did we must always pray, “Not my will, but yours, Father.” But as we pray in submission to the Father we are unleashing an unstoppable force. What power in all of creation can stand against the Almighty God? There is no such power.
Does God really answer prayer? I recently looked through my prayer journal for the past nearly two years. Of the specific requests that could have a verifiable answer, 77% have been answered “yes” by God, 22% are still waiting for an answer, and only 1% of them have been answered “no.” It is almost startling to see how God has fulfilled his promise to answer prayers. Yes, God answers prayer and it makes a difference in this world.
1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” We can have a bigger impact in this world by praying than by anything else that we do! So let’s “draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22) and ask God to do great things in this world!
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