Does Prayer Actually Work? | Praying from Power not Pain
by Nikki Walton of CurlyNikki.com
We spend most of our days lost in thought. Lost in the world. Lost in future hopes, worried about how it may not differ that much from the past.
Notice that you pray from the past. You pray from despair, you pray from your pain, you pray from disappointment… often you can barely sneak some faith or a bit of gratitude past the mind before it gets shut down with doubt and ‘what ifs’. You sprinkle in the phrases you’ve been taught, hoping they’ll unlock favor, but there’s a lingering shadow… ‘what if it doesn’t work’. Does prayer actually change things? Or does it just help you accept the way things are? YES. PRAYER CHANGES THINGS. But often not how we think.
Scripture is full of examples where prayer directly shifted circumstances:
- Elijah prayed >>> drought stopped (James 5:17)
- Hezekiah prayed >>> God added 15 years to his life (Isaiah 38)
- Hannah prayed >>> womb opened (1 Samuel 1)
- Peter prayed>>> dead girl raised (Acts 9:40)
- The church prayed >>> Peter released from prison (Acts 12)
“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
-James 5:16
“These signs will follow those who believe… they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
-Mark 16:17-18
And yet:
- Paul left Trophimus sick in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20)
- Timothy had frequent stomach ailments (1 Timothy 5:23)
- Epaphroditus was near death (Philippians 2:27)
- Jesus healed many, but not all, even in places where He could do no mighty works due to unbelief (Mark 6:5)
It’s not about doubt or lack of faith. It’s about the mystery of the will of God. It’s about coming into this place that we practice each day where we aren’t even a hair’s width apart from Him. Where communion becomes union… the way He prayed to Our Father that we would be- One.
Remember in The Matrix, when Neo finally realizes he’s the One? He starts landing punches without trying. His hands are moving, and they’re giving what they’re supposed to be givin’ lol. Effortlessly! That’s what it’s like. Your prayers become powerful, because they’re His.
They’re aligned. You just know, on a deep level, what to pray for, who to pray for, and how. You’re connected.
With God anything is possible, but the question you find yourself asking is ‘but will He, tho’? Can you trust Him.
Can you rejoice no matter what it looks like?
Can you shift into His Atmosphere when anger knocks, or resentment beckons. When old habits want you to re-engage, can you turn to the One who saved you and continues to each moment?
Faith is not certainty in outcome. It’s not clearly seeing the future or the road ahead. Remember like it says in 1 Corithinians 13, “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away….So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Love.
Trust in the Love.
Keep your eyes on the invisible Love.
Whatever you appear to be praying for… you’re actually praying for more Love. If you can stay focused on your true aim, even though the flesh wants or needs this or that in the visible, the ‘this’ or ‘that’ will often be added. But you have to keep your focus on the invisible, on what doesn’t fade. On what is always true.
So with that, today, try to pray without memory.
Right now. Drop the story. Drop what you think you need. Who you think you need and what you think is missing.
What if you prayed from NOW-
from Presence,
from fullness,
from the Love that’s already holding you?
Close your eyes.
Don’t ask for anything.
Just be the answered prayer.
Just be the gratitude.
Just be the healed one.
The held one.
The Holy one.
THE MIGHTY ONE DOESN’T PRAY FOR STRENGTH… HE IS.
I love you,
Nik
p.s. It came to me in meditation just now, the Holy Spirit, to remember when Jesus was walking through the crowd not praying for that woman who reached out and touched Him. THAT.
You become prayer. You go into this place inside, and you never leave again and then whenever you go out, you’re a whole blessing effortlessly. You can say the words like He did when raising Lazarus, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 11:41–42)… while deeply knowing, wordlessly, that it’s done. It’s like the prayer is just happening through you.
Here’s a question to ask yourself- Can I be so rooted in God’s Presence that I radiate blessing without needing to ask for one? Let that marinate.
Tell me about your experiences below! I love you!
SIT WITH US EACH DAY ON SILENT RETREAT!
