The Power of Prayer – Part One

Unfortunately, many persons in the Church seemingly underestimate the power of prayer.  Our rational, scientific and technologically advancing age discourages prayer’s worth and necessity.  Pejoratively, some equate prayer with religious superstition.  Others do so out of tradition and ritualism.  They don not approach this ever-important spiritual discipline with genuine faith; thus, they fail to access the power of prayer.

The book of Acts depicts prayer as the foundation of great miracles, monumental preaching and tremendous evangelistic campaigns in the early Church.  Consider how diligently the saints in the New Testament Church pray.  Essentially, prayer is the source of their power.  In Acts 12, Peter is on death row awaiting execution just after the religious holidays.  The Church gathers and prays for his release.  An angel of the Lord frees Peter in the middle of the night.  The apostle Paul and his missionary companion are praying and singing hymns at midnight when an earthquake occurs in Acts 16.  There are many other examples throughout the book in which prayers are the foundation of the apostles’ accomplishments in the name of the Lord.

In the gospels, the Lord Jesus faithfully devotes Himself to prayer.  He rises early in the morning and retreats to a quiet place to pray (Mark 1:36).  Before He raises Lazarus from the dead, the Lord Jesus pauses and prays.  He thanks God the Father for always hearing Him.  He asks that the forthcoming miracle will aid the observers in believing God the Father sent God the Son (John 11:41-42).  On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus goes to His favorite prayer spot, the Garden of Gethsemane, where He prays for the final time to receive divine strength to meet the challenge of Calvary (Matthew 26:36-46).  In fact, He is arrested shortly after praying for fulfillment of the will of Almighty God.  Consequently, if the Lord, Himself, has to pray, how much more do current disciples have to do so?

The Bible is replete with wonderful prayers.  I highly recommend a study of prayers in the Bible.  In Genesis 18:16-33, Abraham intercedes for Sodom.  He appeals to the righteousness of Almighty God to spare the “righteous” within the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  In Daniel 9, the prophet implores the Name of God to graciously yield God’s mercy to Israel.  Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:9-18 fervently prays for a son.  After Samuel, the first prophet in Israel, is born to her, Hannah returns to the Temple and offers a prayer of thanksgiving in 1 Samuel 2:1-11.  The prophet, Elisha, prays that God opens the eyes of his attendant and remove his fear of destruction (2 Kings 6:8-23).  To a great extent, the entire book of Psalms is an immortal collection of prayers.  Evidently, David taught Solomon the importance of prayer.  As Solomon ascends the throne of Israel, he prays for wisdom to lead the people of God correctly.  Then, Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple remains one of the most outstanding prayers ever offered to Almighty God (1 Kings 8:22-53).  In John 17, the Lord Jesus offers the “High Priestly Prayer” in which He prays for the Church of today. 

Furthermore, prayer is a major motif in many memorable biblical accounts.  Samson asks the Lord for one last bit of strength to defeat the enemies of Israel.  Hagar appeals to the Lord in the midst of the wilderness for her son’s survival.  Mary, the mother of our Lord, treasures the blessings of the Lord in her heart and prays the “Magnificant” jubilantly.  Paul and Silas’ midnight prayers and hymn singing become the catalyst for the salvation and baptism of the household of the Philippian jailer.  Cornelius’ daily discipline of prayer causes the Lord to send the apostle Peter to Cornelius.  Thus, the Gentiles receive the gospel and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  In essence, prayer undergirds divine actions.

Prayer is not magic!  It is the act of lifting one’s heart’s desire to the light of Almighty God’s face.  It is done with the “full assurance of faith and a sincere heart;” according to Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.  Anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.”  Moreover, prayer is a period of personal empowerment.  As we ask God to resolve our daily challenges, He gives us wisdom, knowledge, courage and persistence to overcome all adversities.  He directs us to the appropriate persons whose hearts are favorable toward us.  These people are God’s vessels of love and encouragement as we triumph within our circumstances. 

The Power of Prayer – Part Two

If prayer does not change our situations, it most certainly changes us.  Prayer affords an opportunity to examine selfish ambition and self-centered fear.  A lot of what we want, we simply do not need.  Many of our conflicts with others largely result from selfish motives.  We fail to accept the roles we play in strained relationships.  Prayer assists in stripping away the blinders.  As we lift our requests to the light of God’s holiness, its brilliance burns away the dross of personal preferences. 

Do you pray for the people who ask?  Do you pray for the people whom you tell, “I’ll be prayerful.”  Prayer is one of the most important things we can do for others.  I suggest we take very seriously our Christian responsibility to intercede for others.  I pray the Holy Spirit constantly reminds us to establish a sacred time for prayer and meditation.  Thereby, we boldly approach God’s throne requesting fulfillment of His will for our loved ones, friends and brothers and sisters in Christ.

When we pray for others, what should we ask?  Is it not presumptuous to pray about another person’s problems?  We have limited knowledge of the facts.  There are times when people state very specific prayer requests.  Certainly, those particular desires guide our prayers.  However, the apostle Paul describes the will of God as “good, pleasing and perfect.”  Accordingly, I submit we can always pray for the will of God in any situation.  Although we do not often know the details, we realize God’s will is best in every scenario.  It is helpful to ask for revelation of His will as assuredly resolves any challenges of the people for whom we pray.

The apostle, James, emphasizes the necessity of prayer.  He asks, “Are any among you suffering?  They should keep on praying about it.”  (James 5:13)  Prayer yields solutions to the suffering.  Actually, it reveals ideas and approaches for transforming suffering into redemptive purposes.  Further, James asks, “Are there among you sick?  They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.”  Evidently, the early church practiced taking all illnesses to the fellowship of believers.  If the individual lacked the requisite faith to pray diligently for healing, the members of the Church would support him in his earnest quest for healing and wholeness.  Conceivably, they did not have access to physicians and healthcare that we do.  They, however, had unlimited access to Almighty God and His healing power. 

Though we enjoy the rich blessing of state-of-the-art medicine, we still pray for healing.  We pray physicians, nurses, attendants and others on the medical staff are as professional and lucid as possible.  We ask God for special revelation of knowledge and wisdom in their practice of medicine and care for patients.  As sickness comes in many forms, physical disease is but one type of illness.  Many people suffer from emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual sicknesses that inhibit their ability to actualize their God given talents.  For that reason, the Church encourages them to come to the “house of prayer” and seek inner healing and wholeness.  We request God’s especial revelation of grace, love and peace to empower them in eliminating barriers to their success and wholeness.

Interestingly, illness provides a perfect passageway into a greater revelation of Almighty God’s unfailing love and faithful provision.  Whereas no one seeks this predicament, should it befall him, he realizes rewards of God’s indescribable grace and enduring mercy.  God concretizes these divine attributes in the personalities and good deeds of His faithful disciples.  Our visits, prayers, phone calls, meals, cards, letters, and other acts of kindnesses demonstrate the love of Almighty God.

Presumably, the early Christians sought the prayers of the “elders of the Church” because they were seasoned “prayer warriors.”  It stands to reason that these believers were mature in the faith, having witnessed the power and benefits of prayer.  In the parlance of my upbringing in South Carolina, they knew “how to get a prayer through.”  As a consequence, the sick and afflicted called upon them to utilize the lessons of their spiritual journeys and the privileges of their relationships with the Lord to effect the healing of the sick.

In addition, young believers resolved the elders had the requisite faith to deliver fervent prayers that yielded healing and forgiveness.  James says in the fifteenth verse of the fifth chapter, “And their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well.  And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.”  Sin is the sickness of the soul.  It is a spiritual disease, which separates the sinner from the source of life and being.  A genuine confession and humble prayer for reconciliation are cures to sin.  The elders of the Church have a unique privilege and prerogative to ask God to give wisdom, to any sinner who sincerely asks thereby enabling his restoration to the Lord and Church. 

The Power of Prayer – The Conclusion

Confession of sin within the context of loving relationships amongst disciples inevitably leads to collective healing from the sin which is a pattern of choices and behavior that undermine one’s relationship with a holy and loving God.  Practically speaking, this pattern eventually and considerably harms a person; it may result in disease, debt, depression, divorce and even death.  Therefore, it is imperative the Church offers a refuge.  There, he finds “righteous people” who pray earnestly for him.  James declares these prayers will obtain “powerful and wonderful results.” 

Who are the “righteous?”  They are persons who live in right relationship with Almighty God.  All of the previously mentioned biblical characters boldly and fervently ask for their heart’s desires because of their close relationships with God.  One of prayer’s primary purposes is the maintenance of our constant contact with our heavenly Father.  In its simplest form, prayer is relational, practical and experiential.  It furthers the development of a vibrant relationship with the Maker of heaven and earth.  Prayer provides practical and spiritual tools to resolve any situation.  Keeping a prayer journal enables us to record personal experiences of the grace and love of God. 

The “righteous” understand their distinct privilege to pray about anything and everything.  From a hurtful hangnail to death, prayer is the response of the righteous.  Seldom does the social, economic and political turmoil of the world greatly disturb the righteous.  In response, they pray and ask God to empower His chosen people to be His vessels in settling these conflicts of culture, religion, money and power.  Whether dealing with micro or macro issues, personal or societal, the righteous never forsake the spiritual arsenal of prayer.  Indeed, prayer changes things; if not things, then people.

Norman Vincent Peale offers some rather helpful insights on prayer in his book, The Tough Minded Optimist.  He tells the story of a television personality who bemoans his difficulty in selling a house.  This guy’s house had been on the market for a while.  He expresses his frustration about not being able to sell it at the price he wants.  Peale suggests this television show hosts pray and ask God to orchestrate circumstances for a family that really needs the house to discover it.  Also, Peale recommends this fellow prays the needs of this family are met in the deal as he sells them the house at a fair price.  This advice focuses upon what is best for all parties.

Peale’s recommendations encourage us to forsake the normal tendency of merely asking God for what we want.  Instead, we willingly open our hearts and minds to becoming God’s vessels of love and instruments of His grace.  Simply put, we ask God to use us in every situation to manifest His “good, pleasing and perfect” will.  As we pray about our daily challenges or enduring obstacles, we take Peale’s advice to heart.  In so doing, we ask God to resolve these dilemmas in ways that please Him and serve His children rather than satisfy our self-centered motives.

This final story about the power of prayer paints a very vivid picture of its necessity.  A missionary tells the story of being imprisoned in a Russian gulag.  His attempts to spread the gospel behind the Iron Curtain of the former U. S. S. R. lands him there.  As his sentence progresses and his isolation increases, he despairs about his abandonment by the Church throughout the world.  He even considers suicide.  Eventually, a Christian reporter reaches him and asks what his fellow believers can do to help.  He says, “Simply pray.”  All over the world, Christians began to pray.  In time, these spiritually vital prayers penetrate the depths of the Iron Curtain.  On several occasions, this missionary felt on the brink of physical death due to malnourishment and oppressive treatment.  But, he contends the fervent prayers of the righteous people of God brought him back to life!

I conclude with reference to a few enduring and great prayers.  First, the prayer the Lord teaches His disciples, “The Lord’s Prayer,” contains bedrock petitions for all believers.  Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is a prayer to which all disciples aspire, “Nevertheless, not my will, but Thy will be done.”  Our Episcopalian brothers and sisters use The Book of Common Prayer, which contains many verbally illustrious and spiritually moving petitions.  Then, The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi remains a spiritual classic in defining daily spiritual objectives.  Finally, The Serenity Prayer offers immediate strength and wisdom in any perplexity.

The Prayer of the Righteous - Matthew 27:45-46

The Prayer of the Righteous - Matthew 27:45-46

In this passage, the Lord Jesus Christ offers an immortal prayer, as He is dying on the cross.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?”  Actually, Matthew’s quotation is an abbreviation of Psalm 22, which some biblical scholars believe Jesus recites in its entirety.  Nevertheless, He prays as a righteous man submitting to death unjustly; having been betrayed by a close associate and denied by many others.

This prayer ideally captures the sentiment of our hearts when we juxtapose extensive evil in the world although we believe in an all-powerful, all-kind, ever-present and all-knowing God.  Why does He allow evil to flourish and the righteous to experience pain and suffering?  If God is just, then He will intervene and reverse this trend.  With the great Russian author, Dostoevsky, we cannot comprehend the misery to which children are subjected.  I recall one winter in New York City in which every weekend a baby was abandoned by someone.  In fact, some of these babies were left in garbage dumps in sub-zero temperatures.  Others were left in gym bags in parks.  Countless children in the foster care system are often abused, neglected and mistreated by people whom the State entrust with their care.  Innocent children do not deserve any oppression and cruelty that befalls them.  In response to such tragedy, one asks, “Where is God?” 

The words of Jesus of Nazareth on the cross, “My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me,” are “The Prayer of the Righteous.”  We utter this prayer in our own words when we stumble in darkness.  We cannot make sense out of our predicament.  We endeavor to rightly relate ourselves to God; yet, as victims of very difficult circumstances, we fall prey to the temptation of believing the bleakness of our situation eclipses God’s righteousness.

This text is puzzling!  Here we have a man who studied the great teachings and teachers of his religion, who gives common persons a new appreciation for Almighty God whom the Law reveals.  This carpenter from Nazareth possesses a unique ability to love everyone, particularly the downtrodden.  With the power of the Spirit of God, he preaches about the coming kingdom of God in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.  He teaches crowds of people about God’s limitless love that undergirds the Law.  In fact, he summarizes the entire law with two commands: first, love God with one’s entire being and second, love one’s neighbor as one’s self.  He heals innumerable people of myriad diseases and afflictions.  Zeal for the house of God consumes Him.  During the Passover festival, He enters the Temple courts and drives out the moneychangers who made the house of God equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange.  Nonetheless, this righteous man’s final hours find him bleeding to death on a cross.  As a consequence, He prays the words of the opening verses of the twenty-second psalm.

As it relates to the setting of the cross, the evangelist tells us “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land.”  In these three hours of darkness, it appears God turns His back on this righteous man.  There are times in our lives when it seems God turns His back on us.  Martin Buber, in his commanding book, I and Thou, posits God recedes within the shadows of our challenges.  Nevertheless, in these trying times of adversity, the righteous simply pray.

The Prayer of the Righteous - Conclusion

The Prayer of the Righteous - Conclusion

In times of adversity and depression, the righteous simply pray to Almighty God for guidance and reassurance of His unfailing love.  Some biblical scholars suggest the Lord Jesus Christ prays the entire twenty-second psalm as He dies slowly on the cross. Consider this lifelong prayer of the righteous, at your leisure.

The Bible is replete with examples of persons whose lives demonstrate God hears the prayers of the righteous.  They are disciples who rightly relate themselves to His holy character and sovereign nature.  God never leaves nor forsakes anyone.  After many years of separation, Ishmael reunites with Isaac to bury their father, Abraham.  (Genesis 25:9)  After his murderous rage subsides over the course of twenty years, Esau genuinely forgives Jacob.  In fact, God blesses Esau as abundantly as He blesses Jacob.  Ruth, the Moabitess widow who shows kindness to Naomi, is in the genealogy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Rahab, a prostitute who demonstrates generosity to the Israelite spies, eventually earns admission into the “Hall of Fame of Faith” in Hebrews 11.  The Samaritan woman at the well, who had had five husbands, becomes an evangelist to her people.  The disciples, although they walked and talked with our Lord for three and a half years, betray, deny and desert Him in the gospels.  Yet, in the book of Acts, when the Holy Spirit enters them, they become the living foundation of the Church.  In total, these biblical narratives remind us of Almighty God’s enduring and unfailing love toward the righteous.

The cross of our Lord teaches the redemptive nature of pain and suffering.  As the righteous cry out to God, He answers their prayers by utilizing their struggles to transform them into the character of Jesus Christ.  He uses darkness surrounding the righteous to lead them to His presence and wisdom.  Accordingly, we cease and desist with any notion that God only works in the light of our lives.  Interestingly, He uses darkness to our advantage, spiritually and personally.  Harry Emerson Fosdick, the founding Pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, once suffered a nervous breakdown.  In retrospect, he acknowledged that dreadful experience as one of the most beneficial occurrences in his life.  In the midst of that agony, the dross of personal preference and ambition were burned away and the gold crystallization of his pastoral ministry solidified.  Abandoned by her mother at an early age, the great Ertha Kitt learned to rely genuinely upon Almighty God early in life.  Ironically, in the darkness, God actually changes our character and desires. 

Out of the horror and bleakness of crucifixion, God brings new life.  He does not forsake His righteous Son as He dies on the cross.  The three hours of darkness that surround this inimitable act of injustice do not signal a failure of the ministry of Christ.  They are hardly a symbol of defeat.  Rather, they are an intermission in the grand cosmological drama of salvation.  Behind the scenes, Almighty God is changing the setting, costumes and characters.  When the curtain opens again on the first Easter morning, an empty tomb has been transformed into the scene of the resurrection.  Death gives way to new life.  Darkness yields to the marvelous light of new creation.  The sound of weeping becomes totally silent, creating the pregnant pause before rejoicing over the victory of Christ.  He triumphs over the final enemy, death!  Thereby, in the words of the great apostle, He makes us “more than conquerors” as it relates to life’s daily challenges.

It is extremely sad to observe how many believers appear indifferent to the power prayer.  This spiritual discipline remains one of the most powerful sources available to us.  A close reading of the gospels demonstrates how often Jesus himself prays.  The book of Acts posits prayer as the vehicle of life, sustenance and progress for the early Church.  Practically, every episode of the first churches and three missionary journeys detail how diligently they prayed.  We, therefore, should follow their example.  As the people of God who endeavor to rightly relate to Him, we must pray to Him. Notwithstanding myriad daily tests, the righteous should not forsake their most enduring and reliable weapon, the power of prayer.  James 5:13-16 promises us that the prayers of the righteous are effective and powerful. 

Indeed, God hears the righteous when they pray!