Prayer: Does it “Work?”

If I walked into the average church in America today and asked a dozen different women if they believe prayer “works,” I believe most of them would quickly answer with a resounding, “Yes, of course,” but if I then asked them if they pray or if they pray as much as they wished they did, or if they were happy with their prayer life, I believe most would answer, “No,” or “Not as much as I wished I would.”

The contrary answers to the two questions make me wonder if we really believe that prayer works. If we really believed prayer works, wouldn’t we spend a significant amount of time praying?

As I sit here pondering how to broach this topic of prayer with you in this post, my first blog post for My Fervent Prayers, I realize that we all come to this topic of prayer with different backgrounds and cultures and experiences. Some may firmly believe prayer works. Some may firmly believe it does not. Some may simply not know for sure either way.

Obviously, I believe prayer works; I would not feel a calling to devote the second half of my life to encouraging you to pray if I didn’t, but what about you? Do you believe prayer works?

If you do believe prayer works, why do you believe it? How do you know?

How would any of us know if prayer works? Some of us might know from experience – either because we have prayed and have experienced having our prayers answered, or we have watched or known someone else who prayed, and we have seen their prayers answered.

For some of us, knowing what the Bible says about prayer is all we need to know. We believe the Bible through and through. If the Bible says prayer works, then we believe prayer works. End of story.

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous {woman} availeth much.”
James 5:16

For the record, the Bible does say prayer works. James 5:16 is the theme verse for this blog. It says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous {woman} availeth much.”[1] For those of us who believe the Bible to be true, James 5:16 tells us all we need to know. Prayer works.

For me, I know prayer works for at least two reasons. First, I believe the Bible through and through, and the Bible says prayer works. Second, I know from personal experience that prayer works. I have seen times when I prayed, or others prayed, and I have been blessed with a knowing that those prayers were heard and answered.

What about you? I want to know about you and your beliefs. Do you believe prayer works? If you do, I hope you will share with me some of the reasons you believe prayer works. If you don’t, I hope you too will share your reasons. If you have doubts, email me, and tell me about those doubts. I truly want to hear from each of you.

In the meantime, what about those of us who believe prayer works, but we don’t pray, or we don’t pray as much or as effectively as we would like? Why is it, that we believe prayer works, but we don’t have a prayer life with which we are happy? Why and how does that happen? Let’s talk about that next time.

For now, I sincerely thank you for reading my blog post, and I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, as a reader of my blog, I am praying for you personally. I may not know your name or your concerns, but God does, and He is listening, and He cares. God bless you and all those whom you love.

If you would like to email me your thoughts about prayer, please click here.

[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version. New York, NY: The World Publishing Company, no date shown (original text altered changing “man” to “{woman}” for emphasis in this blog devoted to encouraging women to pray).