Prayer Changes Things

February 12, 2025

I love a story shared by Dr. Helen Roseveare, missionary to Zaire:

A mother at our mission station died after giving birth to a premature baby. We tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but the only hot water bottle we had was beyond repair. So we asked the children to pray for the baby and for her sister.

One of the girls responded. 'Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today. Tomorrow will be too late because by then the baby will be dead. And dear Lord, send a doll for the sister so she won't feel so lonely.'

That afternoon a large package arrived from England. The children watched eagerly as we opened it. Much to their surprise, under some clothing was a hot water bottle!

Immediately the girl who had prayed so earnestly started to dig deeper, exclaiming, 'If God sent that, I'm sure He also sent a doll!'

And she was right! The heavenly Father knew in advance of that child's sincere requests, and 5 months earlier He had led a ladies' group to include both of those specific articles.

Wow! We do not always see our prayers answered in such a dramatic way, but God does promise our prayers will be answered. Jesus told us:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7-11).

Sometimes we do not see the answers to our prayers at all. Sometimes our prayers are answered in ways we do not want or desire; for example, when we pray for someone to get well and the disease takes them, it is hard to remember that death is the ultimate healing. Sometimes the answer to our prayers is “No” or “Not right now;” but there is no doubt that prayer changes things; most importantly, prayer changes us.

Prayer opens us up to God. Through prayer we become connected with God and the way God sees things and thinks about things. It is a means of becoming intimately aware of the world around us, seeing it beauty and suffering through God’s eyes. It is a means of becoming aware of a larger set of relations including “all the saints” and all the lost. It is a means of becoming aware of God’s purposes, how God wants us to feel, live, react, and act. Prayer is about relationship.

Oswald Chambers writes, “The most important aspect of Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain, and the surrounding influence and qualities produced by that relationship.”

Through prayer we involve ourselves in the purposes of God. For example, when we pray for people who hate us, who mistreat us, who we have difficulty with, it changes our feelings, the way we view them. As we draw closer to God and to the purposes of God, it is more difficult for us to hate, to stay angry or bitter. It is difficult to stay mad with someone we are consistently praying for. Furthermore, when we pray for situations, like the war in Ukraine or the devastation caused by hurricanes in Florida, God convicts us of His purposes, of how we can react, how we can help. Our prayers lead to Godly actions, to giving, to serving, and to change.

Prayer, coming into the presence of God, gives us strength for each day. G. B. Duncan wrote, “There is no place like the feet of Jesus for resolving the problems that perplex our hearts.”

Jesus told us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

We must shift our focus from the mountains in our lives to the mountain-mover. Bill Hybels writes:

Probably every human being alive is standing in the shadow of at least one mountain that just will not move: a destructive habit, a character flaw, an impossible marriage or work situation, a financial problem, a physical disability.

What is your immovable mountain? Have you stood in its shadow for so

long that you’ve grown accustomed to the darkness? I challenge you to

shift the focus of your prayer. Don’t spend a lot of time describing your

mountain to the Lord. He knows what it is. Instead, focus your attention on

the mountain mover – his glory, power and faithfulness. Then start walking

in faith, following his leading, and watch the mountain step aside.

In Matthew 1:29-39, we read that when “it was still very dark,” Jesus went off to “a deserted place” to prayer. Perhaps Jesus goes to pray because he lacks the strength to keep up with the crowds or perhaps Jesus is struggling with whether He should stay in Capernaum and heal everyone or to go forth, following His calling, to preach the Gospel to greater Israel.

The disciples, Peter and others, are astonished at Jesus’ behavior. They believe Jesus should not be sitting in solitude and prayer as anxious crowds await His attention. Isn’t this like today? Our culture prides itself on and respects those who are busiest, often seeing solitude, prayer, meditation, as time that is not productive. God says, “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10).

If Jesus needed to pray for strength and direction, how could we ever believe we could get by without prayer? Samuel Chadwick wrote, “The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.”

Our prayers should be filled with:

• Sincere yearning to know God’s will in our lives.

• Sincere yearning to know God’s heart, His love for this world; thus, our prayers should be filled with love for others, for all people.

• Sincere yielding to whatever God’s will might be, even if it is not necessarily what we prefer.

Early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private devotions. Each one reportedly had a separate spot in the thicket where he would pour out his heart to God. Over time the paths to these places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to the others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, "Brother, the grass grows on your path."

May the grass never grow on our paths. May our paths be beaten and worn by the continual journey to sit at the feet of God, to know His heart and seek His will for our lives.