The Power of Prayer
Recently, I was visiting one of our older members at West Side in the hospital as he was about to go in for surgery. While I was there, an RN came in to run through medications with him and his family and make sure everything was as it should be before his operation. When she found out that I was a minister, she revealed that she herself was married to a pastor (she never mentioned a denomination) and that they had been missionaries both within the United States and abroad in the past.
She got even more excited when she learned that we were about to pray together and referenced a few biblical examples of prayer before beginning her own story. She told us that while she and her husband were missionaries overseas, she had been incredibly sick at one point and had asked some friends of hers back in the states to pray for her. According to her, she and her stateside friends prayed for her condition at the exact same moment, and at that exact moment, her fever broke and she began to improve. As she finished her story, she looked at the man I was there to visit and told him, “Never underestimate the power of prayer.”
There’s a lot I still don’t know after looking back on that conversation. I don’t know about this woman’s understanding of the gospel and the whole truth about Christ and His church. I don’t know if her story about being healed in the moment she prayed for healing is true. In the midst of lingering questions, though, I know one thing for sure. Whether her healing was the miraculous result of prayer or not, she definitely believed that it was, and believed in the power of prayer because of it.
Yes, I left with questions about this woman and her spiritual situation, but I also left with a big question about mine. Do I, a New Testament Christian, believe and trust in the power of prayer with that same conviction? Is prayer my first instinct in every situation (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and is it a divine tool in which I have absolute confidence? Do I go through the motions and say the same few phrases again and again, or is prayer truly personal and powerful to me?
Later that day when I sat down for a meal, my prayer looked very different than it often does at similar junctures. I finished it with a confidence and peace that carried through the rest of the day. The next time that you pray, regardless of the circumstance, I challenge you to pray personally and to trust that God will answer powerfully. It’s amazing what can happen when we talk to God as if He is listening.
“‘If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!’” ~ Matthew 7:11
AUTHOR: Luke Tatum
