Prayer
Why Pray If You Don’t Expect It to Work?
When I first met Bob, he shocked me.
“Why would you pray if you didn’t expect it to work?”
What?!
I realized I had fit prayer into the box of “good Christian things that you do, but don’t necessarily expect results.”
And then he proved his point: “As you go through the Lord’s Prayer, look at how many of the requests Jesus asks us to pray are actually results based! ‘Give us this day, our daily bread.’ Jesus didn’t teach that with the assumption that at some point you will go hungry and starve. No! He meant: pray for provision each day and expect that it will come. ‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’ Jesus expected that prayer to be efficacious. ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’ That is a prayer to stop the works of the enemy.”
Jesus tells us to pray, and then expect that he will answer our prayers.
How exciting is that?!
Amazing, really.
We pray and expect results!
Oh, Lord, I pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9-13: “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Thank you, Lord, for this prayer. Teach us to pray with expectation that you change the world as a result of our prayers. In your precious name, Jesus, amen.
May you stand perfect and complete in all the will of God,
– Amy Joy
Start to make prayer beautiful.
About the Author
Amy Joy is the Executive Director of Workplace Prayer, where she provides leadership in prayer and equips through powerful content including books, classes and courses.