Prayer Does It Make A Difference - Session 6 - What Difference Does It Make?

2017 is the year of Prayer at CDG.  The Sunday morning Adult Bible Study Group after a series titled "Prayer Begins With Relationship now looks at the question Prayer Does It Make Any Difference?  We are using a book by the same title written by Philip Yancey.   In his book Philip explores the intimate place where God and humans meet in Prayer. Polls reveal that 90 percent of people pray. Yet prayer, which should be the most nourishing and uplifting time of the believer’s day, can also be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery. Writing as a fellow pilgrim, Yancey probes such questions as: •Is God listening? •Why should God care about me? •If God knows everything, what’s the point of prayer? •Why do answers to prayer seem so inconsistent? •Why does God sometimes seem close and sometimes seem far away? •How can I make prayer more satisfying? Yancey tackles the tough questions and in the process comes up with a fresh new approach to this timeless topic. “I have learned to pray as a privilege, not a duty,” he says, and he invites you to join him on this all-important journey.   These are my notes for the study.   

A powerful way to make sure that your spirit is growing into the most robust part of your inner man is to pray without ceasing.  I did not say whine without ceasing - I said pray without ceasing.-

So many Christians spend their whole lives whining and complaining to the Lord and then they wonder why their prayers are never answered!  When you pray, pray with joy!  When you pray, come into His presence boldly and with power!  When you pray, leave your emotional soul at the door and take your well-fed spirit into the Throne Room and bask in His wonderful presence!

God loves you when you whine ... but when you join your spirit with His Spirit in a grand symphony of praise that is the moment that heaven and earth begin to move on your behalf.  As Christians, we are not a people group who limits our singing and rejoicing to sunny skies and magnificent circumstances, but we are determined to pray with joy even when our lives are falling apart.  It is part of our DNA to come into His presence with thanksgiving regardless of awaits us outside the door of His presence.

The three Hebrew boys worshipped in the fiery furnace!  Paul and Silas sang at the midnight hour in prison!  Stephen worshipped as he was being stoned!  Hannah worshipped when she was not yet pregnant!  Join the throng of believers from every generation in history who has chosen to pray with joy. - Carol McLeod

But What Difference Does It Make?

Does prayer have any real impact in the world or is it merely a private conversation with God?

Some of the things that make you wonder are:

The fact that while people in the Soviet Union prayed the government shutdown 98% of the churches; Hitler murdered 6 million Jews and several million Christians often while in the ovens with other in the camps praying for deliverance.  While on the one hand we can point to the answer of one of our prayers there is a terrorist attack that kills innocent people many of them no doubt Christians that have prayed for protection that day.

Prayer is Our Strongest Weapon

We often wonder why bad things happen even when we pray that they don’t.  When we look in the Bible there is really no explanation.  Just like when Job wanted God to tell him why all the bad stuff was happening to him when in the beginning of Job God Himself said that Job was a good guy.

Job 1:1 (NLT)1  There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.  

Job 1:6-8 (NLT)6  One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.7  “Where have you come from?” the LORD asked Satan. Satan answered the LORD, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”8  Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

We know that Job prayed in particular he prayed for his children.

Job 1:4-5 (NLT)4  Job’s sons would take turns preparing feasts in their homes, and they would also invite their three sisters to celebrate with them.5  When these celebrations ended—sometimes after several days—Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

Well what happened?

Job 1:18-19 (NLT)18  While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home.19  Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

The prophets and other writers of scripture knew that bad things happened because we live in a world ruled by powers working to block or pervert God’s will.

Ephesians 2:1-2 (NLT)1  Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.

2  You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.  

Ephesians 6:12 (NLT)12  For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

So we pray even though we can’t figure out why bad things happen even because that’s our strongest weapon.  We can’t fight with conventional weapons we can however pray.    Prayer is our lifeline to the only one who is always in control in a world that seems to be out of control.  Prayer reminds us of the thruth or the universe:  that no matter how challenging and difficult life is.  Tod’s mercy, justice and fairness is always in control.  We pray to seek God’s help equip us to counter the forces of evil.  

I bet each one of us can think of a time when we thought we were in a place that we would not be able to escape.  It might have been an illness, a financial need, repairing a relationship, whatever and we prayed.  When God answered from that time forward, even though we see bad stuff happening around us and even to us we will still believe that yes prayer does make a difference.  

Philip then gives some examples in which prayer did matter and perhaps make a difference.

There’s the story about the breakup of the Soviet Union who the writer believes happened because of the power of prayer because it fell apart without a lot of violence.  

There are the comments about a white man who worked with Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu.  The tells the story of Ray and Bishop Tutu trying to defuse a situation caused by the South African army firing on a crowd of black South African protest marchers.  Bishop Tutu told Ray that he would take care of the marchers but he told Ray to take care of, and calm down the soldiers.   Here is the account from Ray:

“I went to them, nervous young boys crouching by their machine guns, backed up by tanks.  You could see the fear in their eyes.  They were, after all, facing 1000,000 chanting black protestors.  Most of the white boys, I knew, were church-going Calvinists. I asked if we could pray, and they all respectfully removed their caps and helmets.  I put everything I had into that prayer, and I meant every word.  We spent the entire day there, a whole group of church leaders, and I truly believe that our prayers with both groups helps defuse what could have been a scene of great violence.”

Then there is the story of Ray’s experience with the Zulu king who was planning on having his people boycott the first South African election.  Ray prayed for peace the day that he met with the king, at which time he told the king “Oh king, you are a great king, but surely even you would wish to kneel before the King of Kings”  the Zulu king it and Ray prayed and the king told his people to stop fighting so that the election could go on.  

An interesting comment was that each of the groups the black South Africans, white South Africans, thought that God was on their side (and He was), so they were willing to yield to the God they thought they served.  

• What do we normally expect when we pray and ask that Gd’s will be done about a specific concern?

• To what extent do we anticipate that God will accomplish what we ask through our labor and sacrifice?

• In what ways might our perspective on praying for God’s will to be done change when we actually become partners with God in accomplishing it?

Philip talked about an angle of repose.  That’s the precise angle at which a boulder will rest on the side of a hill, rather than tumble downward.  He thinks of that as the point at which prayer and action meet.  When a boulder breaks loose it often creates a rockslide.  The same kind of thing happens in an avalanche when a very small accumulation of snow breaks loose.   Taking that concept think about our roles in persevering in prayer causing the angle of repose to shift on what God wants accomplished on earth.

He gave some examples from South Africa.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT)14  Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

What have you seen God accomplish things through people rather than miraculously “fixing” a situation and what role did praying people play in accomplishing God’s will in those instances?

The civil rights struggle of the 60’s.

We talked about our partnership with God last week.

Bible Study Audio