Don't get me wrong, I believe in prayer. I support prayer meetings and I encourage people to pray. But I question the phrase "there is power in prayer". Is there really power in prayer? if so, where did this power came from?
At the least, a prayer can be defined as a form of communication (to a deity). And communication by definition involves a sender (of the prayer) and a receiver (of the prayer). If that is the case, then either the sender of the prayer or the receiver of the prayer has the power to uphold the prayer.
Here is my first point, prayer in itself has no power. Either the sender holds the power to make the receiver affirm the prayer positively or the receiver holds the power to positively affirm the prayer.
Case #1. I was once diagnosed with Cholecystitis or an inflamed gallbladder. The severity of this inflamed gallbladder was as such that I needed an operation called cholecystectomy. They have to remove my gallbladder because it had lost its functionality and that it had already affected some of my internal organs (e.i. liver). Now being part of a church that hold prayer meetings and pray for prayer requests, I was enveloped with constant prayers from all over Canada (I do not know on the onset of the prayer request was sent worldwide). I was informed that the prayer items were 1.for my gall bladder to return to its normal state and 2. that no operation was needed. Weeks after, my doctor called me and said that my gall bladder showed some kind of recovery according to the test results that was done a few days earlier. I remember that day clearly, I was so happy that I drove around Fraser street area yelling and screaming "Thank you God". A testimony was in order and I gave one. But a few days later, I fell ill again and I went to my family doctor and he sent me to a clinic for some tests and found out, days later, that my gall bladder had shut down. My family doctor tried contacting the doctor that was in charge of my case and of course the doctor was on vacation. I guess it was urgent because my family doctor tapped into his "connections" and booked me for an operation at Mount St. Joseph in Kingsway. A few days later my gall bladder was removed.
Case #2. A baby was born to a couple that I have strong ties with. The baby suffered major complications and had to be placed in a baby incubator in neo-natal intensive care unit. It was that bad. Once again, the whole church across Canada prayed for this baby. And to make the long story short, the baby is very active as of this moment and if you just look at the baby you won't even realized what she went through.
Case #3. The church was praying hard for a church member that was diagnosed with cancer to have a complete recovery. This person showed signs of recuperation but in the end the cancer was too strong for her and she passed away.
Three different cases but all three had one thing in common: prayer. If prayer has power, then all of the prayer requests in all of these cases should have been positively affirmed. That also erases the possibility that the sender has the power to make the receiver uphold the prayer. Which leaves us with this: the receiver alone has the power to make the prayers come to pass.
Who is this receiver? In John 6:6, Jesus tells us to pray to the Father - God the Father. But we pray through the name of Jesus as commanded in John 14:13. But do realize that Jesus acknowledges that it is not His will that matters but the will of God. The Lord's prayer states that "Let your will be done..." and his prayer in Gethsemane adds "Not my will but your will be done." Additionally, I John 5:14 says that if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL(author emphasis), then He hears us.
Which leads me to my second point, our prayers are dependent solely on God. We have no power to dictate to God to answer our prayers according to our wishes. We may have all the faith in the world but if it is not His will then it will not happen or at least not yet. Take for instance the recent loss in the family of a very good friend and confidant of mine, the whole church prayed, both in Canada and the world, but in the end God's will still prevailed. Our assurance is not that our prayers will be met but that the will of God will come to pass for His glory in our prayers.
And my third point is this, as we stand on the promises of God in the Bible, do make sure that we always acknowledge that God's will be done by making sure that our prayers are align with his thoughts. After all a communication can only happen if there is a "meeting of the minds". And since we DO NOT have the power to make God meet our minds, we have to meet His mind. Meaning His will is what we need to aim for in our prayers and not that our prayers are postively affirmed.
***As some of you may have known, I am in a journey to find truth. With this entry let me begin by declaring publicly that (I seriously believe) God is sovereign in all things***
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