Prayer Works

Prayer works! I am convinced of that fact even though I often hear arguments that prayer doesn’t work. People will assert that prayer doesn’t work because it doesn’t deliver what is requested. I think that argument demonstrates a basic misunderstanding of prayer.

Even if we misunderstand prayer, most of you who are reading this can say that prayer works. You have your story of answered prayers. Here is mine from last week.

Last week Wednesday I was returning from the Pastors’ Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. My friend, Pastor Darrell was driving his van and in addition to me, there was a second passenger, Vicar Kevin. About 15 minutes out of Jacksonville, the air conditioning in Pastor Darrell’s car stopped working. This was unpleasant, but not so bad that we were worried about getting home. We all had commitments that evening and we had to get home.

We stopped for a quick lunch in Vero Beach. When we got back in the van and Darrell noticed that the power steering was not working. We pulled over and, even though none of us were particularly proficient at minivan repair, we knew that there was a problem. For my technical readers: the serpentine belt was broken because the air conditioning had seized up.

I mentioned that I had a friend in Vero Beach who had lived there a long time and knew a lot of people. Grant (my friend) came to Vero as a youth Pastor some 25 years ago. He is now Headmaster at Master’s Academy. I had Grant’s phone number in my phone and I called him. His secretary did what good secretaries do and tried to protect him from crazy phone calls in the middle of the day.

After pleading with the efficient secretary, I did speak with Grant and got the location of a reputable mechanic in Vero. “He isn’t the cheapest in town,” Grant began, “but he’s an honest and godly man.” As we made our way from the highway into Vero Beach, we were doing so on borrowed time. It was a nerve-racking drive of maybe 5 miles. First the engine began to overheat, so we turned on the heater in the car. Then, the blinkers stopped functioning. Then, as we neared our destination, the dashboard stopped working entirely. As Darrell muscled the minivan into the driveway of the repair shop (there was no power steering) I could smell that sweet smell of engine coolant boiling out of the radiator. We JUST made it.

Grant had called ahead and warned him that a bunch of desperate Pastors were on the way. The owner of the shop seemed very pleasant. His shop was the cleanest garage I had ever seen and his waiting area did not have the usual greasy smell of an auto repair establishment. I didn’t see any of the racy calendars I often see in other garages. We did explain that we had meetings to attend, Bible classes to teach, and classes to take that evening.

He explained our options which all included an extended stay in Vero Beach. As the wheels began turning in all of our heads regarding who would teach for us and how we could reschedule meetings, Don (the mechanic) said, “why don’t you take my personal car to Fort Lauderdale (some 2 hours away) and bring it back on Friday.” I saw Darrell’s jaw hit the floor and Kevin almost fell out of his seat. “Are you sure?” He was. It was an incredibly generous offer from a man we hadn’t seen 10 minutes before and hadn’t heard of an hour before.

It wasn’t too long and we were on our way. None of us would be late. We were all safe and now we even had air conditioning.

Seeing God work that way in my life is pretty exciting. He was at work getting us home safely. He was at work directing us to choose Vero Beach as our lunch stop. More importantly, to see the Body of Christ at work caring for one another is always humbling. We got in the car in Jacksonville with a prayer for safe travel; we had no idea how God was going to answer that prayer.

But, I believe that prayer works not because God intervenes in our lives in amazing ways. I believe prayer works because when we pray, we declare our dependence on God. We’re admitting that we need Him and we will rely on Him for our health, protection, and to get us home on time.

Even if we hadn’t stopped in Vero Beach for lunch and even if we hadn’t made it to the repair shop, God was taking care of us. Our prayers only admit that reality.

The action step for me is to keep on declaring my dependence on God by devoting myself to prayer. I invite you to make your own declaration of dependence today.