Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– E.M. Bounds
Here is how prayer makes the world a better place:
Prayer Solves Problems
I wish I could relay to you the dozens and dozens of testimonies where the answers to prayer helped heal broken marriages, where drug abusers were set free and where lost people were saved. Prayer changes the world and the more we pray the better off the world will be. If we do nothing, then nothing much will happen. The Body of Christ, the church, can only move forward on her knees but moves not at all without prayer. Prayer is asking God’s supernatural power to change the natural world and to do it for His glory. If it’s not for His glory, nothing about the world is better.
Asking, Seeking, Knocking for God’s Answer
Jesus once said “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt 7:7) which indicates that it is up to the one who needs help to initiate the action of asking, seeking, and knocking, otherwise nothing is given, nothing is found, and nothing is opened. It’s like a little boy looking for his mother in the house. He starts by asking for her…no answer. Then he begins to seek her but she isn’t found. Finally he starts knocking on the doors of each room in the house and only then does the door open and out comes momma. If the boy never asked, if he never sought, and if he never knocked he still would be wondering where his momma was. For him, the world was better only because he was asking, seeking, and knocking.
Effectual, Fervent Prayer
James once wrote that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16c) which seems to indicate that we must not have any unconfessed sin if we are to ask for something in prayer. The Psalmist declared “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18). Come to God with a clean conscience or as once again James writes “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8).
Conclusion
God hears the prayers of someone with clean hands, someone who has confessed their sin and are in a right relationship with Him, who is asking, seeking, and knocking, and needs God’s supernatural power in their lives. Only when this happens will the world be a better place because “The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be.” It is as simple as that.
