The Power of Prayer

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. – Soren Kierkegaard

Does prayer work?

First we should define what prayer is, and is not. It is not the merely automatic utterance of pious words on somebody else’s cue. That is to say, it is not just a habit that sooner or later we might easily break. With true prayer there has to be a real conviction that we are at the moment encountering God in our hearts … up close and personal. Those who do not believe what Christians believe, who have no faith whatever, cannot begin to imagine the reality of that encounter. To them, it is put down as delusional wishful thinking that God even exists, never mind that He listens to our thoughts and considers our petitions. And this is the reason why faith seems not possible for them. They have shut their hearts to the presence of God, just as you might lock the door when you know someone you do not want to encounter is on the other side knocking to enter.

Prayer, then, first of all is openness to the presence of God in our hearts. Not only openness, but welcome, and eager welcome at that. Perhaps that is why faith is traditionally listed first of the three great virtues: faith, hope, and charity. Without faith there can be no openness, and therefore no conversation. Without faith there can be no hope; and there can only be at best a modest portion of charity compared to the charity preached by Christ.

The notion that prayers are sometimes never answered is a false one. They are always answered, and that is why Saint Paul admonishes us to pray continually. The answer to our prayers may not be the one we want to hear, but even “No” is an answer. “Wait” is another answer. Those who cease to pray, or cease to believe in the power of prayer because they did not get a “Yes” do not understand that for God “Yes” may be the wrong answer to a particular petition. But even “No” is part of God’s providential plan and proves that His power is at work in the world even when we think ours is not.

The prayers of the faithful have always, sooner or later, brought about an end to tyrants and evil regimes. That is power. Hitler believed his Nazi empire would last a thousand years, but Christians prayed and it lasted only twelve. If the power of God were less than the power of Satan, life would be an unrelenting hell of torture and suffering. At least one spiritual writer says that if we are in the middle of a temptation, speaking one word … “Jesus!” … can make the temptation lose its force. By the sound of our voice calling out His name we are strengthened.

The instinct for God is natural, but the knowing of God must be in the seeking, because we have a hidden God. The scientist’s search for natural law is natural; yet the natural law cannot be known except by struggling to find it. The artist naturally seeks the beautiful, but the beautiful must be discovered by struggling to sculpt beauty out of a rock or by struggling to paint it on a canvas or by struggling to finger it on a keyboard. That is power. If we acted upon the principle that things do not exist because we do not see them in front of us, there would be no science or art, because nothing is visible except by drawing ourselves near to the True and the Beautiful and the Good, and struggling with all our power to wrench them from their secret hiding places. The skeptic will never know the power of prayer until he draws nearer to God with his first prayer. First prayers may be hardly recognizable as such. They might be a mere rumble in the spirit, a radical discontent, a moment of supreme nostalgia for the Father we have abandoned but who never abandons us.

To pray constantly is spiritual struggle and constant wrestling with God.

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