Have you ever heard someone say to you, “Prayers work”? I cannot know for sure, but if I am right, I think this is what they meant. They had something heavy on their hearts, or something nice they really wanted, and they prayed to God and asked him for his help. After they prayed, God removed the heaviness on their hearts, or gave them that something nice they really wanted, and they wish to say the reason why that happened was because they prayed. They received the outcome they wanted because God heard their prayers. Praise be to God. Because prayers work, this is more reason for all of us to pray whenever we want something from God in the future. Prayers work.
Is this really how we should think, and say? I don’t disagree you and I ought to pray whenever we want God to do something for us. I don’t disagree we ought to pray not only when we have something heavy on our hearts, or ask for something nice we really wanted, but all the time. But we must be careful when we prayed, and we received the outcome we wanted, we run with this and say, “prayers work”. What if we prayed, but we didn’t receive that something we wanted, what should we think, and say? Is there anyone prepared to say, “prayers don’t work”?
When some people say, “prayers work”, it is possible what they mean is that the prayers they prayed, in some way, affected the outcome they received, as though the prayers made God guarantee the results they wanted. Some might even say their prayers “altered” God’s answer. God was not at all prepared to bring the outcome they wanted. But because they prayed, God departed from the answer he had planned to give, and gave them the result they were seeking. Prayers work.
Not so fast. Not exactly.
We should not say, “prayers work” after we prayed, and we received an outcome we wanted. It is true God hears our every prayer we whisper. It is true our every prayer to God lands in his inbox. But I have always said that what God does with our prayers after this point remains a huge mystery to me. “Prayers work” is not as simple as we pray to God, and we receive the outcome we wanted. It is more complicated than that. Let me explain. There are times God will act or not act from what he had planned to do because he heard our prayers. What he ultimately chose to do or not do was because we prayed. But the Bible also teaches us that our God is a sovereign God. Therefore, there are those other times God “will not alter” what he had planned to do no matter if we prayed or not prayed to him. It is a matter God had decided to do or not do, and nothing is going to change that (But that is another article for another day). From day to day, we just won’t know if a matter in our lives is something that God will choose to act or not act depending on whether we prayed or not prayed, or if a matter is something that God has already decided to do in his heart no matter how much we prayed.
What we can know for certain, however, is that God interacts with us through our prayers, always. God interacts with us in every prayer we pray, and this we can take to the bank. If what we mean by “prayers work” is that we prayed, and God interacted with us through our prayers, then I agree wholeheartedly that prayers work. If this is what we mean when we say, “prayers work”, then prayers work, 100 percent. There should never be a time when we say God didn’t interact with us when we prayed. There should never be a time when we say, “prayers don’t work”. Our prayers always accomplish what they were set out to accomplish. We prayed, God heard our prayers, he interacted with us through our prayers – and this is his answer.
In conclusion, if we prayed for God to remove a heaviness on our hearts, or give us that something nice we really wanted, but God was silent, it is theologically wrong for us to say, “prayers do not work”. If we should not say, “prayers do not work” when we prayed, and we didn’t receive the outcome we wanted, we should equally not say, “prayers work” when we prayed, and we received the outcome we wanted.