Does Prayer Actually Do Anything?

I recently returned from a mission trip to Hiroshima, Japan, where some of our mission partners serve. This was my second mission trip to Japan, and both times the Lord deepened my awe of how beautiful and powerful prayer truly is. I am so thankful for brothers and sisters that prioritize prayer as they do at Mustard Seed Church. 

During our orientation, Pastor Michael Creed said that if all we did when we came to Japan was pray, that would be the best way we could serve the people in Hiroshima. Just pray? If we’re really being honest with ourselves, many would consider this a failure of a mission trip. Where’s the sharing of the Gospel? Where’s meeting the physical needs of the people there? If you went on a mission trip and just prayed, would you feel like you had to justify that your time was really worth it there? Was it truly “successful”?

One of the quotes that has truly changed the way I view prayer is from the evangelist Oswald Chambers. He said, “Prayer doesn’t prepare us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work”. I had always viewed prayer as a means to get my mind in the right headspace before I stepped into a gospel conversation or some sort of ministry. I never considered it the ministry itself. Yet as the Lord continues to grow me in my walk with Him, I have come to realize that I often put far too little emphasis on prayer. 

Now before we move along further, let me make a slight caveat. I know that we often see in Scripture that prayer is tied to action. We can see this in people like Nehemiah, Isaiah, Paul, and ultimately in Jesus. I’m not saying to disregard opportunities the Lord is placing in front of you and just go pray instead. I would recommend that you pray beforehand, but still walk forward in action. Yet my fear is that far too often we just use this as an excuse to not pray. Pastor Creed from Mustard Seed said if we don’t pray, it’s not worth it. We might have temporary results, and things might seem like they even really work. But if it’s not done in dependence on the Lord, it’s all ultimately in vain. Perhaps you feel experienced in a conversation or decision, or like you have no time before you have to do something. So in your mind you weigh what’s more important: That I act for God or take a moment to pray to God? If we’re honest with ourselves (myself included), we are likely to be led to the former instead of the latter. While there are some moments when we have no choice but to act, I think we often have more time than we usually think. So I would encourage you to not rush a quick prayer, but to genuinely stop and pray. Not as a means to be “successful”, but as a means of crying out in desperation to God. We must know and believe that we truly cannot do anything on our own. Psalm 127:1 tells us that “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain”. If we know the One who can actually do something, should we not be on our knees pleading for Him to move? 

So now we come back to this question, does prayer actually do anything? Well, it depends on what we mean by that. Is prayer able to change God’s mind? I would say no, because nothing can change our unchangeable God (James 1:17) nor do His perfect ways need changing (Deuteronomy 32:4). Is prayer able to be the simple input/output equation to get what we want? I would also say no, as we saw earlier that it has to be the Lord who works in Psalm 127. Author and professor Trevin Wax said, “Because God is bigger than us. When we pray, we’re not in the realm of results and statistics, ‘trade-offs’ and ‘metrics’ and ‘measures.’ We’re not in a world of success and failure. Prayer is training us to look up to the God whose first and greatest commandment is to love him with our whole heart, mind, and soul. You cannot measure or quantify that goal. You can only give yourself over to that desire and direction”. 

However, if you asked me, is prayer what God uses to bring His will about? I would say yes. Marshall Segal of Desiring God once said, “Our great hope in prayer, therefore, is not to change what God has planned, but to bring about what God has planned”. That is how God’s kindness is seen through prayer. He has His will in mind, and puts His wisdom in our hearts to ask for Him to move, and then He answers. While we were in Japan, we had a game night one night and no one showed up. We waited for almost two hours and decided that if no one came by the three-hour mark, we would pack up and leave. During this waiting, I took some time to pray and ask that God would bring someone for us to share the Gospel with. Not even thirty minutes later, two women showed up asking if it was too late to join. During that time, they brought up how they had many questions about Christianity, and through their questions, we were able to share the Gospel multiple times. An act like this can truly only be the Lord. And because He prompted me to pray instead of packing up, we got to see Him move. So yes, I would say prayer allows us to see God move in ways that we would not if we did not pray. Lastly, is prayer able to grow our affection for Christ? Yes. What prayer ultimately involves is focusing our hearts off ourselves and onto Jesus. Seeing His beauty, power, and majesty. Meditating on His Word and speaking it back to Him. It is here that we experience our minds being renewed. It is here that we grow in our sanctification. It is here that the Lord leads us to respond. 

We are all on a journey of learning to understand the goodness of prayer, and this is something that we will continue learning into eternity. I pray that this blog encourages your heart and deepens your understanding of God’s love in a way that leads to spending more time with Him in prayer. He is worthy! Your heart will be blessed by Him as you desperately cry out in both praise and dependence.