Sermonette: Prayer

I really enjoy writing these sermonettes. I know that may seem odd, especially considering that this September I’ve had to prepare four different lessons each week. Despite how overwhelmed I’ve been, I still enjoy writing these sermonettes, even if no one reads them. This form of teaching allows me a great deal of freedom to spend as much or as little time as I want on ideas and thoughts I have. These short, written lessons work especially well when dealing with a new (to me at least) idea that I’ve found in my Bible studies. This week, I’ve found a huge “new” idea. This concept, while always there, has never struck me before. And this grand idea is this: prayer is powerful.

As I was preparing for this week’s sermon, I found passage after passage that talked about how powerful prayer is. Matthew 7:7-8, Matthew 21:22 and James 5:16 all promise that the prayers of the righteous are powerful and will be answered. James even cites Elijah’s example: he prayed for the rain to stop, and it did. Three and half years later, he prayed again, and it rained. Jesus promised his disciples that they could pray a tree to death or a mountain into the sea.

I know we’ve all heard this a million times before, but see the truth of it with new eyes. When people talk to God, amazing things can happen. Honest to God miracles, even. No, not amazing things "can" happen, amazing things will happen. Jesus and James promise responses to prayer. “Ask and you shall receive,” Jesus says.

Sadly, we don’t see this kind of response to prayer these days. Church leaders will try and soften it by saying that God doesn’t work in miraculous ways anymore or they’ll justify the lack of the miraculous by pointing out how God has blessed us. We don’t need God to heal people like in the gospels because he does it through doctors nowadays.

However, I think the truth is much scarier. James states that the prayer of a "righteous" man is effective and powerful. Jesus says "if you have faith, prayer will be answered." Those are the only disclaimers Jesus and James offer. If we have faith, if we are truly righteous, our prayers will be answered. I could be wrong, but as I read it, it seems that how God responds to prayers can be a litmus test for our righteousness. If we’re in sync with God, we’ll pray for things that are in God’s will, and our prayers will always be responded to. However, if we feel like we’re not seeing responses to our prayers, maybe before we ask God for things, we need to ask him how we can walk in better step with him.