Does God Really Answer Prayer?

Prayer is an interesting subject for most Christians.  If asked do you really believe in the power of prayer... most would say yes!  However, most do not live and pray like they really do believe.  I for one am guilty of this...  For years, I would say a quick prayer at a meal, pray at church, and then pray before going to bed... then I would just check "prayer" off my list for the day and keep going with everything else in my life.  I believed there was power in prayer, but I hadn't internalized that belief.  It wasn't until this year as I worked in Philly that I finally started to get it.  This past August when I started working with Student Venture, there really wasn't a lot happening in our area.  There was only one married couple there holding things together because a former ministry team had left the area several years earlier.  The couple had been praying for more laborers to come, and another girl and I both joined their team last year.  We then had twice the team size, but at first very few things to work with.


One of the first things we started was prayer walking one of the high schools at 7:30am every Wednesday morning.  I was about as excited about that as anyone would be... you mean I have to get up that early... drive over... and pray?  Doesn't God hear us anytime and anywhere?  Cant I wait and pray after I wake up later?  The more we prayed however, the more I started to really enjoy it!  It became a joy to spend that part of the morning praying for the students that we wanted to reach out too.  I don't think I noticed it back then, but now that I look back over a year of prayer walking that school, it blows my mind what all we were able to accomplish there this year.  I connected with the band there, we had a football chapel with 10-15 guys each week and even kept 6 or so around for a post season Bible study.  Katie, my team member launched two junior high sports chapels reaching out to cheerleaders, field hockey players, and basketball players.  We also did several outreaches, worked with the local youth center, and were involved in four youth conferences.  We prayed for a long time for God to open up doors to reach out to the skaters in the community and God blew my mind with the way He so easily connected me with them to start a weekly meeting, which you can read more about here: Sunshine on a Cloudy Day.  Just looking back at it all, I know prayer was a huge key to the successes that happened this year!  God really grew my faith and reminded me of the power of prayer and the need for it in my own life.


The Bible so clearly shows us the power of prayer.  First of all Jesus prayed all the time!  Also, Moses was constantly praying to God with all the struggles he dealt with the Israelites for God's provision of water when Moses struck the rock (Exodus 17), food like the mana or quail (Numbers 11), when God got mad at the Israelites for their Idolatry of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32), and various other things like deliverance from foes, sickness, and overall safety and provision.  Moses prayed, God answered!  James 5:17-18 says "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit." referencing 1 Kings 17-18.  These and many other Biblical characters prayed because they had faith that God was able to do things that they could not and God answered them in their faithfulness!  They didn't just say they believed, they lived it out through the actions in their lives.

In Mark 11:24 Jesus says, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Also see, Matthew 7:7-8 and John 14:13-14... the Bible says time and time again if you ask, God hears and He answers!  The question then is what is your motive?  Is it for God's glory and are you abiding in Him? In John 15:7-8 Jesus says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”  Or is it our of selfishness?  James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”  So often we ask God for things like money, happiness, success, etc... but those things aren't always glorifying to God.  If you pray in desperation for things that glorify God's will and plan and believe He is able to do anything you ask... He will do it!

Psalm 116:1-2 

“I love the Lord, because he has heard
    my voice and my pleas for mercy.

Because he inclined his ear to me,
    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.”