There honestly seems to be no limit to stories of how corporate prayer changes an environment. The Corporate Benefits – How Prayer Changes Your Environment The act of prayer has the opportunity to change any individual who is asking with a humble heart, as opposed to an attitude of simply demand, receive, depart. An unanswered, delayed, or differently-met prayer is a learning opportunity-sometimes even moreso than receiving the answer we wanted. With open ears and an open heart, we may even be receptive to an answer that is not quite what we asked for, yet is everything we need to amplify and improve our spiritual walk and move into deeper relationship with Him. What a powerful perspective! Prayer can be life-changing because even if we don’t see divine providence spring from it, the mere act of prayer itself tunes our heart to God’s. But let me tell you what I lost: Anger, ego, greed, depression, insecurity, and fear of death.’ Sometimes the answer to our prayers is not gaining but losing, which ultimately is the gain.” “Once a man was asked, ‘What did you gain by regularly praying to God?’ The man replied, ‘Nothing. There’s a quote I love in regard to this subject: More than that, the simple act of praying, as well as the habit of being steady in prayer, can have a fantastic impact on a person’s life. It’s a dynamic, ever-maturing part of our relationship with our Creator, if we commit to making it so. It’s us going to Him with our needs and desires, our hearts, but it’s also an opportunity for us to listen and learn whether we’re asking for the right things, asking in the right way, whether our hearts are in alignment with His vs. A push-button dispenser for the things we want does not a relationship make no matter how crucial we may feel our coffeemaker is to our daily functioning. I mean, think about it-how deep and engaged is your relationship with, say, your coffeemaker? I’m guessing it’s low on the dynamism scale you press the button, brain-juice is dispensed. So, you may ask, what is the benefit in praying if we’re not guaranteed to get what we want? Well, one of the reasons it’s valuable-and yes, even still life-changing-is in fact because prayer is not a dispensary! The Personal Benefits – How Prayer Changes You Sometimes that’s just how it goes with prayer! And that’s really important to understand, because the intricacy of prayer can be disheartening if we aren’t prepared for it. With childlike faith, she quipped, “God DID answer me. I’ll always fondly remember a story I read as a kid, the testimony of a little girl who prayed for weeks and weeks about this certain toy she wanted for her birthday said birthday rolled around and passed by and she didn’t get the toy, and her older brother taunted her about God not answering her prayer. 10:12-14) and we experience it often in our own lives. We see evidence of this biblically (2 Sam. For all sorts of reasons-too many to go into depth with in this article-although some prayers may be answered exactly how we want, others may not be answered or they may not seem to be answered at all or we may not receive an answer right away. A prayer is not a coin deposited for a guaranteed prize.
To start with, it’s important to understand that prayer doesn’t work like a candy machine in the grocery store foyer, where two quarters and a twist is guaranteed to get you some Mike n’ Ikes or a sticky hand to smack your sibling with (or husband, if you are a mature adult like myself.). What about the act of prayer? What about prayers that take a long time to see fruition? What about prayers that receive the answer of “ No” or “ Not in this season” or “ Not in the way YOU want it to happen”? Do these prayers just fall short of changing lives, or do they, too, have a place in the growth, maturity, and change that moves us along?Įxpanding on this question, we might ask: How does prayer change people’s lives beyond just being answered? The answer is: In a whole lot of ways, actually! Let’s explore them together. Because what was stated above is just addressing how the answer to prayer changes lives. How could that not change things-lives, circumstances, the whole world, etc.? Seriously, it’s the power of God!īut going deeper, there might be more to this question that needs unpacking. On a surface level, the question of how prayer changes lives can feel like a simple one to answer: it changes lives because it invokes the power of God to come to pass in a situation.
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