THE POWER OF PRAYER
A close relationship with God is one where we have no problem revealing our deepest needs. It centers on this biblical truth: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)
On the other hand, natural human thinking holds that we risk looking silly if we ask big, and we risk being accused of lacking faith when life turns out different from what we ask. So we can be tempted to ask God for the safest things, to look for low-hanging fruits, and to believe that we should only knock on doors with clear welcome signs.
“Prayer is the language of the poor. The satisfied will never pray and the self-righteous cannot pray.”
To be sure, we don’t need technology to be close to God. We don’t need Zoom see His face or hear His voice. James 4:8 tells us, Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Prayer keeps our relationship with God growing the same way healthy conversations lead to better human relationships. The uniqueness of man’s relationship with God lies in the recognition that we are made with an inborn need to connect with the God who created us and that we don’t have the capacity to do life on our own.
One can analogize that the books of the Bible are like mobile apps and Jesus Christ is the ‘network’ that gives us direct access to God so that we can speak with Him anywhere anytime. Faith is believing that Jesus is the only ‘network’ and the Bible is the only ‘device’ we use.
Prayer is not solitary times of chanting memorized scripts to achieve some level of mindfulness, or a formulaic way to give thanks before we eat. Neither does it produce magic dust. What prayer does is that it strengthens our faith in God so that we learn to trust Him in new ways, and experience life with Him by our side.
So what is prayer and what does it look like?
It is a conversation with God who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it -the Lord is His Name. (Jeremiah 33:2)
It acknowledges Jesus as the One who makes the direct connection with God possible. He said it in John 14:6 I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
It is talking to God who has invited us: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3)
It is not a plea bargain for sins committed or an emotional monologue though it should not discount our thinking and emotions as in any human conversations. God created us with emotions and a mind and He doesn’t want us to walk around without them.
It can be thanksgiving, praise and worship; a request for something; and sometimes, an argument with God, or venting our frustrations to Him.
There are three important truths to unpack about prayer.
Firstly, the power of prayer lies not in the one who prays but in the One who is on the receiving end of the prayer. Prayer connects us to a faithful, loving and compassionate God.
“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.”
When we pray bold prayers, we draw on biblical faith that is based on what God has done before. We know that because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), there will be encores of similar transformational power. The power of prayer lies in the power of God and not in how well we construct and articulate an imagined future. It is trusting that God has not bailed out on us – even when He seems remote, silent and unreachable.
Secondly, we must know that there is a process and faith journey involved as we wait for God’s response. This is the hardest part that makes many give up on the waiting, and even on the asking. But this process is often part of the solution, and the part that changes us on the inside and prepares us for the new realities to come. Truth be told, we are part of God’s success formula, but often we stay stuck in the problem space without progressing into His solution space.
Finally, there is power when we pray together with others. As recorded in Acts 12:5: So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. Their collective prayer resulted in Peter’s miraculous ‘prison break’ when Peter and his rescue angel came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. Talk about the world’s first recorded auto iron gate!
Many ‘firsts’ will happen in your life when you pray and trust God. Don’t give up just because there’s a big iron gate in front of you. Remember that there is no gate or door that God leads you to that He will not also open for you to pass through!
