The Purpose and Power of Prayer

The fact that we pray doesn’t mean that everything we pray for will immediately be ours or that everything we pray against will immediately be wiped away. Fathers, however fond and affectionate, don’t always give their children all they ask for—not even if they are able. Wise fathers know that children must do many things of their own effort. A wise Father may show us other ways to get what we think we want; or He may show us the wisdom of waiting—or He may show us the wisdom of changing our wants. Obviously all men cannot (and should not) have everything they pray for. This is true because people often pray against one another—as in a race when two contestants both want to win; as in a lawsuit when two parties both want to possess the same piece of property; or as with the weather, when one man wants rain for his crops and another wants clear skies for a picnic he has planned. And if we are ever disappointed in prayer it may be because we don’t quite understand the purpose of prayer (or perhaps because we don’t quite understand the purpose of life). It is not the usual purpose of prayer to serve us like Aladdin’s lamp, to bring us effortless affluence or ease or the easy fulfillment of all our fleeting fancies. Life isn’t an uninterrupted holiday; nor, obviously, was it meant to be. Rather it is a time of training, and often of trial, of education and of self-effort. And often the purpose of prayer is to give us strength to do what needs to be done, wisdom to see the way to solve our own problems, ability to do our best, and faith to face what sometimes must be faced (“nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done”). Nor is prayer always a matter of asking only. It should not always be as the beggar’s upturned hand. It is also partly appreciation, and partly a petition for others and for all the world, as well as for “me and mine.” It is communication between man and his Maker, as between child and Father, and is an unfailing source of strength and understanding and endurance. “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”