Praying by Precept & ExampleSample

Prayer is Power

Prayer is not a religious ritual performed to give an impression of spirituality. Prayer is power. It does something. It has effect. It reaches into the supernatural and brings forth intervention in the natural. The story of Jacob in Genesis 32:24-28 captures this forcefully. Jacob wrestled with God until the breaking of day, and the result was not just a blessing, it was a name change. He went in as Jacob, the supplanter, and came out as Israel, a prince with God. The word in the Hebrew for "prevailed" carries the idea of effect, of causing something to happen. Prayer caused something to happen in Jacob's life.

Abraham's intercession for Lot (Genesis 18:17-26) shows the same dynamic on a wider scale. God was prepared to destroy Sodom, and Abraham stood before Him and negotiated on behalf of the righteous. Lot's life was spared because a man prayed. And then Hezekiah, given a divine decree that he would die, "set thine house in order" (Isaiah 38:1), turned his face to the wall and prayed. God heard, and fifteen years were added to his life. What was a fixed divine declaration was altered because the one concerned prayed. These are not isolated coincidences. They are Scripture's testimony that prayer reverses courses destined for doom.

Jesus underscored this in Luke 18:1-8, teaching through the parable of the persistent widow that men ought always to pray and not faint. The widow had no standing, no resources, no connections. All she had was persistence before a judge who owed her nothing. Yet her consistent coming compelled a response. Jesus then turns the logic: if a heartless judge responds to persistence, how much more will a loving, responsive God avenge His own elect who cry to Him? The answer: speedily.

Prayer is the believer's most underused resource. It is not passive mumbling. It is power. It is the spiritual mechanism by which you bring heaven's intervention into earth's situations. With God, your tears matter. Your sighs matter. Your words in prayer are mighty

Action Point: Think of one situation in your life where you have been passive or resigned, where you have accepted a "this is just how it is" conclusion. Bring it to God in prayer today with the same earnestness Hezekiah brought his terminal prognosis. Pray as one who believes prayer can reverse what looks fixed.