Prayer Changes Things…And Me

Luke 11:1….one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray…” To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.

It doesn’t matter what we are going through in our lives, prayer makes the difference in how we handle the circumstance. We must remember to pray without ceasing. When life is good, we pray, when life is bad, we pray. Colossians 1:9 says, “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” The part about not ceasing, what did Paul mean by “from the day we heard”? A little research showed me that a pastor named Epaphras, from Colossae, visited Paul in Rome while he was under house arrest. Epaphras sought Paul’s wisdom for some of the challenges the church was experiencing back in Colossae. And here’s the thing: Paul had never met the believers in Colossae. He had only heard about them from Epaphras.

Colossians 1: 7- 9 tells us that Paul loved this fledgling congregation from the moment he first heard about them, and he committed himself to praying for them. Paul was literally praying for people he had never met, and he was praying that they would “be filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” Could the secret to a powerful prayer life be found in a genuine passion for people to know Christ and to know Him more fully? A closer study of Paul’s prayers would seem to indicate so. (Romans 1: 8-10; Ephesians 1:15-16; Philippians 1:3-5) I began to pray for certain people in my life to know Christ. And the more I prayed, the more I actually wanted to pray, which was kind of crazy. But as I prayed, my heart grew for people. They were no longer names on a prayer list because they were people, I had begun to invest myself in.

A powerful prayer life comes from a heart that overflows with love for people and a deep desire for them to know Christ. Friend, maybe you’ve had a passion for prayer for a long time, but maybe, like me, you’ve struggled at times with prayer, too. If that’s you, I want to encourage you with the same truth that encouraged me. A passion for people leads to a passion for prayer.

Please visit us at The Family Church 9456 Hwy 146 N Hardin, TX or you can watch our services live on Facebook at @tfchardin.