Does Prayer Really Work???
by
Randy A. Croft
Largest radio receiver on earth is in New Mexico. Pilots call it the Mushroom patch. It’s real name is VLA-Very Large Array. It’s a collection of huge satellite disks on 38 miles of railways. Together they form a single telescope the size of Wash D.C. Astronomers come from all over world to analyze the data from the heavens. Radio signals from sources millions of light years away. They need huge dishes, because radio waves are very faint. The total energy of all the radio waves ever recorded barely equals the force of a single snowflake hitting the ground.
Some people wonder today if God is like the VLA satellite system. Is he hard of hearing our messages--our prayers. So many times it seems we pray only to have the prayers unanswered. Silence. Does God have a VLE system--Very Large Ears, or does his computer upstairs get clogged with the millions of people praying each day?
America Online-a computer internet provider, got sued for millions of dollars because people paying their monthly dues would try to get on the internet and would get constant busy signals. Too many calls coming in...
Some people pray every day. Some pray only at church. Rates are always cheaper on the weekends anyway, right?
Tonight I’m not going to talk so much about how important it is to pray--the bible makes that very plain. Mark 1:35 "Very early in the Morning, while still dark Jesus got up, left the house where he was staying, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed." Jesus prayed, duh--we ought to pray....
Tonight questions: "Why are some prayers are answered and other aren’t?" "Does God hear all prayers?" "Does Prayer really work, or are we just wasting our breath?"
Contrary to the popular opinion, there are times when we really are wasting our breath--more on that later.
First of all--let me give you a few examples of prayers that don’t seem to work. Then a few examples of answered prayer.
Unanswered prayer
1. Friend. Christian. Daughter sick. She died. Became agnostic.
2. Chaplain in WWII said that there were always more men who prayed going out to fight than men who came back.
3. Father in a coma. Cancer. Prayed get better. He died.
Answered Prayer
1. Car stops at night. Trouble. Mother prays. Waits. Car drives up. Fixes it. "I saw you praying." Impossible.
2. Young pastor start a church. Needed $600 exactly. He had $10. He went to a church one morning. During offering time, a friend put a check in his pocket. $600.
3. Roger, friend of mine. I kept inviting to church. I prayed one day telling God I wasn’t going to invite him anymore...my invitations weren’t working. If God wanted him, he’d have to reach him himself. Amen. Phone rang. Roger on the line...Hey can I come visit your church this weekend. Later baptized, Christian college, committed to Christ.
4. Mother. Cancer and Osteoporosis. Several surgeries. After one surgey, 3-4 years ago, the doctors said, "It’s a miracle the cancer didn’t spread to other areas of your body. It would have been critical."
Even if you don’t believe in God, and you pray--things happen. One person used to be criticized for believing in answered prayer...People called it coincidence. He said, "I don’t care what you call it. When I pray--coincidences happen. When I don’t pray, they don’t happen. I’ll keep praying for coincidences then." That’s what science is revealing more and more. Prayer does affect things.
Article in Medical field about prayer. God M.D.
ILLUS: Dr. Dale Matthews from Georgetown Medical Center in Wash D.C. "I can say, as a physician and scientist...that, scientifically, prayer is good for you. The medical effects of faith on health are not a matter of faith, but of science."
Ex.. One scientific report of 400 patients--coronary care unit. at SF General Hospital. Tracked over a 10 month period. 192 (almost half) patients were entered into an intercessory prayer group (they had people praying for them and didn’t know it).
Those who were prayed for had less heart failure during recovery, had less pneumonia, and cardiopulmonary arrests.
Ex..700 patients at a Veterans Hospital. One group received lengthy visits and prayer from Chaplains. The other, very little contact. The extra time the chaplains gave cost hospital about $100/patient. However, discharge rate was much higher, and had a healthier recovery. It actually saved the hospital $4000 per case.
Several more examples--these two give you a taste of the current studies being done on prayer and healing. I could give you similar cases in terms of addictions, finances, and family, and jobs opening up.
Harvard has been studying the connection between prayer and healing for some time now, and have reached some conclusions that praying is more than simply a placebo or an emotional activity. There are qualitative and scientific results that take place when people pray.
However, let’s be realistic for a minute. Prayer does not give 100% returns like we expect. While most patients do better, some don’t. Sometimes people pray for a job, a relationship, an addiction, a stressful situation, and we don’t get the results we hoped.
5 reasons why some of our prayers don’t work.
1. Our motives are wrong. Not praying to God, we’re talking to ourselves.
ILLUS: Praying for a job offer that came through. Husband tells his wife, I really need to pray this thing over. You go upstairs and pack. Motive not God’s wisdom, but self-talk.
ILLUS: Missionaries to prayed, Lord send us anywhere in the world and we’ll go. Just don’t send us to South America. Where did they end up? South America. Only then do they have trust in God.
"When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so you may spend what you get on your own pleasures." James 4:3.
2. Unrealistic
ILLUS: Little boy prayed "God if you can find a way to put the vitamins in candy and ice cream instead of spinach and cod liver oil, I’d sure appreciate it."
ILLUS: 2 kids running to school. race
ILLUS: If we eat double cheeseburgers and junk food our entire life and then ask God to help keep our cholestoral low--gimme a break. God’s brighter than that.
"Don’t be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." Gal 6:7-8
3. Cherished sin.
Ps 66:18 "If I cherish sin in my heart, the Lord will not listen to me."
Deut 1:43 "You rebelled against the Lord’s commandments and were arrogant...You came back and wept to the Lord, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you."
Proverbs 28:9 "If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable."
ISA 59:2 "Your sins have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear."
ILLUS: What if your neighbor came to you one day to borrow your car. You lend it to him. He speeds out of driveway...riding the clutch, revving the engine. He comes back 2 months later and the car is almost trashed. No oil in the engine. Interior wrecked, etc. You spend $1000 getting it back to normal. He come back the next week, asks to borrow it again. You’d say, "Are you crazy?" Some of you might do it again, but you know you’re going to lay down a few requirements. Take care of the car. Bring it back by next week. Go easy on the engine. Change the oil. etc...Or "Here you go--trash it again."
4. It’s not God’s best choice for us.
John 5:14 "If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."
Jesus did not want to die on the cross. "Father, if possible, take this cup of suffering away from me, but not my will, but yours be done." Matt 26:39 Jesus had to taste the bitterness of sin and death for us--not the easy way out. Jesus committed even the way he would die to his Father in heaven.
Paul, "I had a thorn in my side from Satan. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me."
2 Cor 12:7-8
I believe God could have healed my fathers cancer. He did with my mother. I know he has the power, and can do miracles. No question. But I don’t know the whole picture. I don’t know what the future held for my father. Only God has the big picture--so I’ll let God be God.
5. We don’t believe.
James 1:6-7 "When you aks, believe and don’t doubt. Those who doubt are like the waves of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. The person who doubts shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord."
Eph 3:20 "God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine through His power at work in us."
ILLUS: Drew Bledso quarterback for the New England Patriots--threw 4 interceptions in the Superbowl. Of course the Patriots lost to the Packers--but it was a close game for a while. You want to know what Drew said after the game--"I imagine people will question my play in the game. But I’m not going to let this game or any game shake my confidence in my ability to play. I’m going to be a quarterback in this league for a long time." He knew he’d be back and he was. Although he was injured most of the year when the Patriots returned and defeated the Rams in the Super Bowl, he had a key role in a major playoff game, as well as coaching the young quarterback who was filling his slot while he recovered from injury.
In the same way, we shouldn’t pray without expecting God to hear.
These 5 principles apply to Christians and non-Christians. Doesn’t matter. When you pray--try to see if some of these roadblocks are present.
Remember when you pray:
Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you to myself with love."
I John 4:19 "We love God, because He first loved us."
Realize that God doesn’t just want to answer prayer lists. He wants to give you Himself. The gift and the Giver go hand in hand.
***God, Thank you for always keeping the channel open for us. Forgive us when we block the channels by our stubborness and cherished sins. We want nothing to block our relationship.
And for those of you who may not really know God, and you want to...I want you to pray something like this...God--I’m opening my house for you to come in and live. Not as a guest, but as a permanent resident. I give you the keys to all the closed doors and closets. Live in my heart and life. I give my life to you. Thank you for giving your life for me. Amen.
