Content In Prayer Life

Iraq. Israel and the Palestinians. Iran and western culture; clashes in perspectives and worldviews…clashes in religions, nations, and cultures.

At one time Israel and Egypt were near war. Civil war looked inevitable in South Africa and the Soviet Union loomed as a major threat. Because of the complexity of the body of Christ and the broader culture, we can never trace an exact cause-and-effect influence of prayer. But there were peaceful outcomes to the above crises.

Most of our prayers focus on the needs of our families (spiritual but mostly physical). Maybe this is to be expected but it should not be the extent of our prayers. God tells us to pray for all those in authority. Individually and collectively we should be praying for the leaders of our cities, the leaders of our states, for presidents and foreign leaders, for parliaments and courts.

Even when Christians can’t fully agree—politically, they can pray that God’s will be done; that the priorities of God’s kingdom be visibly realized.

How does prayer work? We don’t know. How God responds to our prayers is a mystery.

But I believe Tennyson was correct when he said: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”