Prayer - What Does It Do, Exactly?

 So last night we were once again meeting virtually. Technically the wife and I were cleared from the 'rona, but I had asked the Prayer Warrior to share the message and she wasn't going to be able to meet with us in-person. So, we kept it virtual. Had a great time with a little scavenger hunt, and found out Changa has some fast hands. Honestly, I hadn't even finished saying what the item was before he had it on screen.

Well, as you can imagine from the title of this here post, the Prayer Warrior (I suppose her nickname gives it away, too) shared a message on prayer. She opened by sharing that she loves to pray (hence the nickname) and that she usually goes to bed praying through different requests from people which she writes on 3 x 5 cards. She flips through them, praying, until she falls asleep. She shared that she prays through Isaiah 41:10 every night - "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

One of the main points from this message is this: God answers prayer. If you do not believe this, write down your prayers - whether it be on your phone, on a notecard, or in a notebook. Make sure that it is somewhere you can go back to and look at. Then, as you continue to pray over those things, write down whenever God answers those prayers. You see, what usually happens is we will pray over a situation or a request and then forget about it. We never go back and thank God for answering, so we often don't feel like He does. But, He does. He answers prayer. And taking notes can help us to keep track of that and to see that.

What I just wrote above is the practical application from this message, so if nothing else, give it a try. Below are some biblical examples of God answering prayer, as well as an explanation for what prayer can do.

Luke 18:1-7

Here is a woman who demonstrated persistence in her request. She begged and begged and wouldn't stop until the unjust judge gave in to what she wanted. God is not like this unjust judge, He actually wants to work with us and help us (and He wants us to work with Him and help Him). But the point we can take away from this passage is that prayer is not a "one and done" thing. We don't just pray for something once and hope for the best. We should be like the woman and continue to pray, over and over, until God answers. What this does is it draws us to God often (since we are praying more) and then when He does answer, we are more aware of His presence and action in our lives.

2 Kings 20:1-11

In this passage it almost seems like God changes His mind because of prayer. This is not exactly what happens. Instead, what happens is that God tests the king's faith, and the king responds by crying out to God. As the Prayer Warrior put it last night, "The Lord graciously favors those who faithfully seek and serve Him". Prayer can attune us to God in a way that nothing else can, and God answers those who turn to Him. He may not always give us the answer we want, but that does not mean He does not answer at all.

Nehemiah 1:11-2:5

In this passage we see Nehemiah praying in the midst of a very stressful situation. He prays beforehand, and he prays again in the middle of the situation, and God answered. How many times do we cry out to God in the middle of a stressful situation? Probably a lot less often than we should. Instead, we try to handle it on our own, which doesn't always work out for us. We should follow Nehemiah's example to pray when get put in a tough spot. God is always listening, and He will hear you.

Hebrews 11:6 - "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

The Prayer Warrior pulled out a Russian Nesting Doll as an illustration. They are those dolls that have one big one, then another slightly smaller one inside, then another even smaller one inside of that one, and so on until you get to this really tiny doll in the middle. Well, the point of the illustration is that some people have really big faith, while other people have really small faith. The size of your faith DOESN'T MATTER, as long as you HAVE faith. We just need a little faith, and then as we pray and God answers, our faith begins to grow. The important thing is to pray believing that God will answer.

Mark 14:35-36

What is interesting here is that Jesus, who we know to be God, is praying to God to change His mind. He expresses in this passage a desire to not have to die on the cross. Well, we know that God said no to this part of His prayer, because Jesus did go and die on the cross. However, God did answer the last part, because Jesus said "not my will, but yours be done". Jesus recognized that the human part of him, the part that didn't want to go suffer and die on the cross, was going against what God wanted, and so His prayer was for God's will to be done, no matter what.

God is not a vending machine. We don't put in payer and get what we want in return. Prayer is a conversation, and God often uses it to help us understand (and come to terms with) His will for our lives. Prayer can help us to see what God wants us to do. He gives us direction through prayer.

Romans 8:28 - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

The Prayer Warrior shared a story she had heard from some college friends who had gone to Spain. There was a day where rain loomed on the horizon, but hadn't started to fall yet. One of the friends was out at the store and prayed to God that it wouldn't rain until she got home. The other friend was with her host family and was praying for rain. So we have two different people praying for opposite things - one for it not to rain and the other for it to rain - and God answered BOTH. He made it rain, but until after the first one had gotten home. We can trust God to work for our good, and we should always look to Him in prayer in all things.

A final note is that prayer doesn't change God. Prayer changes us. It engages us in conversation with the all-powerful God of the universe, and helps us to see things from His perspective. It also helps us to see how much He cares for us when we go back and remember how He has answered our prayers in the past. And, this builds our faith. Prayer is not important for the Christian, it is ESSENTIAL.