The Sufficiency of Prayer
By: Max Dalrymple | Student Ministry Director
Prayer is most powerful when it demonstrates spiritual neediness and total dependence on God. Many of us have probably felt disappointed by prayer at some point in our lives. Maybe we prayed for a certain job, a financial need, the healing of a loved one, or something as miraculous as a Mariners World Series, but things didn’t go the way we had prayed. Maybe such disappointment in prayer has made hearing a sermon on its sufficiency, power, and effectiveness difficult to hear. If prayer is really so powerful and effective, how come it seems like I can point to so many instances where it hasn’t worked?
The only thing prayer is not sufficient for is a way to get whatever we want. God didn’t give us prayer so all our wishes would be met. However, even when we don’t get what we had wished for, when we pray as God instructs us to He begins to change our wishes for the better. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Likewise, Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” In both of these verses, we are promised that God will give us the desires of our heart. However, notice that in both of these verses, there is a condition. Delight yourself in the Lord and then He will give you the desires of your heart. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, then ask whatever you wish and it will done for you.
Delighting yourself in the Lord and abiding in Him come first. And what’s amazing is that as we abide in Him, He begins to change our desires to be His desires for us. This is great news because what He wants for us is so much better than what we think we want. Therefore, a large element of prayer’s power is to powerfully change our own hearts and desires.
Not only this, but God promises that our prayers for each other are powerful and effective. Note what James writes in James 5:13-16: “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
Church, our prayers for each other are powerful. Let us not stop praying for each other and confessing our need for prayer to one another.
Praying with you,
Max