We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

boy-praying

Does Prayer Really Change Things?

Many people operate out of a blueprint model where God is viewed as absolutely unchanging, and all that occurs in the world is the unfolding of an eternal divine plan. If this is the case, then the purpose of prayer is to change us, not to change things.

While prayer does change us, the Bible presents a perspective very different than the blueprint model. Prayer really does change things. Scripture teaches that God created a world in which he has significantly bound himself to the prayers of his people.

For instance, in Ezekiel 22:29-31, we see God responding to the sins of his people. He didn’t want to judge them and he sought for someone to prevent it. The Lord spoke as though there were a wall protecting his people from judgment, but the wall was being eroded by their sin. He sought someone to repair this wall and stand in the place where it was breaking so that the judgment wouldn’t come.

He was looking for someone to “stand in the breach” which refers to, or at least includes, intercessory prayer. After all, Scripture is full of examples of individuals and groups changing God’s plan to judge people through intercessory prayer (e.g., Num 11:1-2; 14:12-20; 16:20-35; Deut 9:13-14; 2 Sam 24: 17-25; Jer 26:19).

Let’s look at one example:

Therefore [the Lord] said he would destroy [the Israelites]—

had not Moses, his chosen one,

stood in the breach before him,

to turn away his wrath from destroying them. (Ps 106:23)

The prayer of Moses changed God’s plan (Ex 32:10-14). We need to take this teaching very seriously. In Exekiel 22, the Lord doesn’t say that prayer would have changed a person’s attitude about God’s judgment. The Lord says that prayer would have enabled God to withhold judgment. In light of this, it’s difficult to avoid concluding that God has sovereignly designed the world such that prayer significantly influences him and the world.

Jesus confirms this. He taught us to pray that his Father’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6:10). The teaching only makes sense if God’s will is not already being accomplished on earth. Moreover, it only makes sense if our prayer actually helps bring about God’s will on earth. Prayer doesn’t just change our attitude toward God’s will: it releases it on the earth.

In addition, Jesus instructed us to ask God for things, promising us that they would be given (e.g., Mt 7:7; Jn 14:13-16). Prayer doesn’t just change our disposition about what we have or don’t have. It affects what we have or don’t have. Similarly, Jesus commanded us to pray with tireless persistence—as though God doesn’t want to hear and answer our prayer (Lk 11:5-13; 18:1-8). This teaching assumes that the more we pray, the more good is accomplished, not just in us but in the world. Indeed, Jesus taught that prayer can move mountains. It doesn’t just change our attitudes toward mountains!

—Adapted from Is God to Blame? pp. 126-128.

Image by babasteve via Flickr

Related Reading

How do you respond to Deuteronomy 30:16–23?

The Lord tells Moses of his impending death and then prophesies that “this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst…breaking my covenant that I have made with them” (vs. 16). The Lord will have to judge them accordingly (vs. 17–18). He then inspires Joshua to write a song for…

A Blessing for Ash Wednesday

 Sarah (Rosenau) Korf via Compfight For those of you observing the Lenten season (and for those of you who are not), we thought we would share this poem by Jan Richardson. Rend Your Heart A Blessing for Ash Wednesday To receive this blessing, all you have to do is let your heart break. Let it…

How do you respond to Galatians 1:15–16?

“…when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me…I did not confer with any human being…” As with Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5), John the Baptist (Luke 1:13–17) and other God-ordained prophets, Paul was aware that God had decided on a…

Paradigm Shift Questions

A couple that was recently introduced to ReKnew and several of my books recently wrote to tell me that they are in the process of embracing the warfare worldview along with the open view of the future. They said that they “realize that these things aren’t minor adjustments but are rather all-encompassing paradigm shifts in…

Topics:

What is the significance of 2 Chronicles 32:31?

“God left [Hezekiah] to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.” God tests his covenant partners to discover whether they will choose to remain faithful to him, an exercise that is absurd if God exhaustively foreknows exactly how faithful every person will choose to be. If the…

Topics:

Do All Roads Lead to God?

First, if it’s really true that Jesus is the way to Father and that no one comes to the Father except through him, (Jn 14:6) then it seems that no other religious leader or religious doctrine can bring us to the Father. “The” is a definite article, and it implies singularity. “A dog” could refer…