Quote from Forum Archives on April 2, 2006, 6:02 pm

Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>

Try out the new website at www.theburningbush.net

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The Burning Bush Devotional

Welcome to the 1,152 new subscribers since November 1, 2005!!

04.03.06

Prayer Effectiveness

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of
Him. - 1 John 5:14-15.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we
should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts
knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the
saints according to the will of God. - Romans 8:26-27.

So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have
faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree,
but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,'
it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will
receive." - Matthew 21:21-22.

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. -
Matthew 14:13-14.

There has been another study conducted as to the effectiveness of prayer in
healing. The headline of this study is: "Study fails to show healing power
of prayer." We do not know all of the details of the study but we do know
some of them. It was a study consisting of 1,800 heart bypass surgery
patients. People were organized to pray for these patients. These prayers
were said by two Catholic groups and one Protestant group. These groups were
given written prayers and the first name and initial of the patients they
were to pray for. Conclusions from the study were stated as follows:
"Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether complications occurred
(and) patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for them had a
higher rate of complications than patients who were uncertain but did
receive intercessory prayer."

The spiritual fact of the matter is that some people are more effective in
prayer than others are. Even the disciples of Jesus after being with Him for
some time asked that He would teach them how to pray. We do not know what
the written prayer was that was said for each of the patients in this recent
study of the effectiveness of prayer. We do not know anything about the
spiritual condition of the people who were doing the actual praying. Prayer
is a vital aspect of our faith and attempts to measure the effectiveness of
prayer or non-effectiveness of prayer by secular, non-Christian methods are
doomed to failure.

What are some factors necessary for effective prayer?

Factor # 1: "according to His will." - The prayer will be answered according
to God's will. If we want to have an effective prayer we should try to pray
in accordance with what we believe God's will to be. We should have so much
confidence in this that we believe what Romans 8:26-27 says and that the
Spirit actually translates our prayers into the prayers that should be said
according to God's will.

Factor # 2: Matthew 21:22, "believing" - Whoever is praying must "believe."
Believe what? First of all, they must believe that there is a God and then
they must believe that God will answer their prayer in accordance with His
will. It is a matter of the heart, a matter of faith (Hebrews 11:6; Romans
4:20-21).

Factor # 3 - The Name of Jesus, "My Name" - There is more to this than just
ending a prayer by saying you are asking in the Name of Jesus. Who is it
that would be praying in "My Name?" Jesus was speaking to His followers,
believers in Him. Yes, we should pray in His Name but such a prayer would be
meaningless unless we were truly His followers, believers in Him.

It is easy to be discouraged in prayer. I hope that no matter what some
study may say that you will continue to talk to God. Because He wants to
talk to you. Don't worry about whether you are praying the right way or the
wrong way. The most important way is simply to pray. Jesus says you ought to
always pray and the apostle Paul writes that you should pray continuously,
pray without ceasing. Please continue to pray!!

Copyright © 2006. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
on a non-profit basis with source credited. The Burning Bush website has
been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the
Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.

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