Does My Prayer Accomplish Anything?

The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
(James 5.16 NAS95)
 

For some time I wondered why I should pray at all. If God already knows everything and/or has already predestined everything in life, what’s the point of prayer? Does it actually do anything? The answer is “yes.” I am not going to get into a discussion about God’s predestination or how He orders all things yet doesn’t predestine man to sin. I’ll be honest and tell you that I chalk this up to a mystery that is beyond me.  

With that said, we know that prayer accomplishes much because the Bible tells us it does. As a Calvinist, I have often been asked about evangelism. The conversation will go something like this: 

Christian: If God predestines those whom He will save, why do we need to evangelize?  

Me: Because God uses means to accomplish His will. God will use someone like me or you to share the Gospel with someone that needs to hear it. We are the means by which God allows that person to hear the Gospel.  

Christian: So, if you don’t share the Gospel with that person will they still come to Christ?  

Me: Yes, because God’s will will always be accomplished. If I don’t share the Gospel with them God will find another means for that person to hear the Good News.  

I have had this conversation with many people over the past ten years. A person like you and me can be a physical means by which God will accomplish His will. He may use other physical means as well, a car accident, a power outage, or a lightning bolt, can move us to take actions in one way or another that will place us exactly where the Lord wants us. So what does this have to do with prayer?  

I believe God uses prayer as a means to accomplish His will. We might not think of it this way because it is not a physical thing we can see, but God often uses the prayers of the saints to accomplish His will even more than He uses physical means. The reason the prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much is that God uses prayer as one of the most powerful means by which He ordains and imposes His will. Jesus said: 

“Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matthew 21.21–22 ESV) 

What other force in this world could uproot a mountain and throw it into the sea? Only the Almighty God can do such a thing and He chooses to do so through the means of faith and prayer of the saints.  

I doubt the Lord will throw a mountain into the sea anytime soon, but if He did, I am confident it would be done on account of prayer.  
We hold one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. It resides on our lips and in our minds. It is the utterance of prayer heard by the all-powerful God. It is the petition of the beloved saints to their loving God.  

Does our prayer accomplish anything? The answer is yes. It directs the course of world history, moves the immovable, and is the means by which the Lord orders the universe.  

Photo by Matheus Bertelli