Agree / Disagree?
"Prayer works!" might be a catchy bumper sticker phrase but in reality, if the act of praying is the source of people being helped, healed or given hope, then it is more magic than authentic conversation with God.
Agree or disagree below . . . with a statement, a story, a scripture . . .
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I agree. Prayer does not work. God is at work. The emphasis is God.
Hi Phil. I strongly agree that it's not prayer that works, but God that works when His people pray--and submit to His perfect will. The scene in the Bible that came very vividly to my mind as I typed those words is Jesus on His knees in the Garden of Gethsemane praying earnestly to be released from what He knew would be the excruciating separation from His Father and bearing the weight of mankind's sin. He concluded His prayer with "May your will be done." May that be our prayer, as He is our source of hope.
I totally agree, Stephen.
Prayer begins when we say, You are God, and I am not.” Prayer begins when we acknowledge our frailty. We may say many prayers before that moment, but we only begin an authentic conversation with God when we realize our utter dependency upon Him.
I only can say that if you consider prayer magic, then your relationship with God is minimized considerably. In the bible, I find many verses related to prayer... pray unceasingly, whatever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive, in everything by prayer, prayer of faith shall save the sick... and so many more verses. In my personal life, my oldest daughter (teen at the time) was in crisis. Every day I took her to prayer over something and every day my prayers were answered... so much so that people around me wanted "what I had" and I told them I had God at my side. No, prayer works and it works because we ask in faith, it works because it falls in God's plans and it works because God promised... and today, my oldest daughter is a child of God's and raised her children to love God with all their hearts. God knew. I only had to dedicate her problems to prayer, a conversation where I asked God to help and it was His will to do so. Prayer works.
Perhaps you should say "We pray. God works." I keep reading and re-reading your statement and think it isn't Biblically logical. Jesus taught us to pray for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done -- that includes people being helped, healed or given hope. God is all powerful, but He moves in response to our prayers. He could do it all on His own, but has chosen to use feeble and frail individuals, His creation, who come to Him with all our requests. What He has promised is His perfect peace as we make our requests with thanksgiving and without anxiety, knowing He is near -- whatever the outcome, He is near. Our attitude is everything. If we come before His throne clothed in the righteous robes of Christ because we abide in Him, our hearts will cry out to Him for the very things that are on His heart. If we come to Him demanding our own way, not so much!
Prayer isn't magic. God is sovereign and He has a plan for our lives. He loves His children and wants to hear from them and he wants to bless them. When we place our lives, problems, etc. in His hands through prayer, we are recognizing that He is in control and He has our best interests in mind - even when He answers with "no" or "not now".
As a believer and prayer warrior, I have learned to express the desires of my heart to God in prayer and then to tell Him that what I truly want is His will for the situation - whatever it may be. I recognize that His ways are better than my way, so I yield my will to His. At the end of the day, I am at peace and He has not disappointed me yet - even when the answer is different than I would like.
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