What Happens When We Pray?

Prayer is a central activity of the Christian life; yet it is difficult to grasp exactly what it is or how it functions. We must understand prayer in the light of what we know of God. We know he is a caring Father who created human beings to have fellowship with him. We know his attitude toward us is one of acceptance, forgiveness, mercy, and love. Therefore our goal in prayer is not to change his mind about us or to give him information he does not already have. Rather, the purpose of prayer is to help us tune our own minds to his will for us.

Although we may not fully understand what happens when we pray, the testimony of Scripture and of millions of persons is that prayer does make a difference. Sometimes it helps in terms of direct intervention, when God seemingly steps into human history and takes a hand in human events. Sometimes these occurrences can be explained through natural causes or circumstances; sometimes they appear absolutely "miraculous." Whether they are seen as "answers to prayer" would depend on whether they are viewed through the eyes of faith or of skepticism.

Another possibility is that when you pray, you are changed. In prayer, you may be given new insight to see what might be done about the problem, or you may be given enabling grace to withstand the difficulty until something within the dynamics of the situation brings about a change. God acts not so much "out there" as within you. This explanation seems to be the most easily verified in personal experience.

There are times when the earnest prayer of an individual brings about change in another person's life. It is not easy to understand how this is possible, in the light of human free will and God's intent of allowing each of us to make our own choices in life. Yet we are instructed to pray for one another, and Jesus spoke of praying on behalf of his disciples. Prayer was a vital part of his life, and repeatedly he urged his followers to give themselves to prayer.

We may be able to understand prayer as being somewhat like the process of taking in nourishment through food. Even if we are not fully aware of how the food we consume produces nutrients within our bodies, this does not keep us from eating regularly. In the same way, though we may not understand completely how prayer nourishes our spiritual lives, we should be diligent in prayer and make it a part of our regular spiritual discipline.