Does Prayer Make Any Difference?

DOES PRAYER MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
SALVATION IS BY FAITH IN CHRIST
Romans 10:9-10
9 That if you confess with your mouth,
“Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will
be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that
you believe and are justified, and it is with
your mouth that you confess and are
saved.

BE BAPTIZED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
ACTS 1:4
4 On one occasion, while he was eating
with them, he gave them this command:
“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the
gift my Father promised, which you have
heard me speak about.

BE BAPTIZED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
ACTS 1:8
8 “But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

DOES PRAYER MAKE ANY
DIFFERENCE?

But are we to assume that God is wrong or
non-existent because our prayers are not
answered?

Chesterton wrote,
"The real trouble with the world of ours is
not that it is an unreasonable world, nor
even that it is a reasonable one. The
commonest kind of trouble is that it is
nearly reasonable, but not quite."

Ravi Zachariah,
‘For every person who feels that prayer has
not "worked" for them and has therefore
abandoned God, there is someone else for
whom prayer remains a vital part of her
life, sustaining her even when her prayers
have gone unanswered, because her belief
and trust is not only in the power of prayer
but in the character and wisdom of God.’

John Chrysostom,
“Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a
treasure undiminished, a mine which is
never exhausted, a sky unobscured by the
clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It
is the root, the fountain, the mother of a
thousand blessings....

John Chrysostom,
.... The potency of prayer hath subdued the
strength of fire, it hath bridled the rage of
lions, hushed anarchy to rest; extinguished
wars, appeased the elements, expelled
demons, burst the chains of death,
expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged
diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities
from destruction, stayed the sun in its
course, and arrested the progress of the
thunderbolt.”

IS ANYONE LISTENING?
DOES ANYONE CARE?

LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE A BIG
DIFFERENCE
'I have absolutely no doubt that if you are a
praying Christian, your faith in God is what is
carrying you, through both the good times
and the hard times. However, if you are not a
praying person, you are carrying your faith
you are trying to make your faith work for
you apart from your source of power and
trying to carry the infinite is very exhausting.'

THE MYSTERIOUS IMPACT OF PRAYER
John 17:1-26
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward
heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has
come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may
glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority
over all people that he might give eternal
life to all those you have given him…

John 17:1-26
… 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may
know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have
brought you glory on earth by completing
the work you gave me to do. 5 And now,
Father, glorify me in your presence with the
glory I had with you before the world
began…

John 17:1-26
…6 “I have revealed you to those whom you
gave me out of the world. They were yours;
you gave them to me and they have
obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that
everything you have given me comes from
you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave
me and they accepted them…

John 17:1-26
…They knew with certainty that I came
from you, and they believed that you sent
me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for
the world, but for those you have given me,
for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and
all you have is mine. And glory has come to
me through them…

John 17:1-26
…11 I will remain in the world no longer, but
they are still in the world, and I am coming
to you. Holy Father, protect them by the
power of your name—the name you gave
me—so that they may be one as we are
one. 12 While I was with them, I protected
them and kept them safe by that name you
gave me…

John 17:1-26
…None has been lost except the one
doomed to destruction so that Scripture
would be fulfilled. 13 “I am coming to you
now, but I say these things while I am still
in the world, so that they may have the full
measure of my joy within them…

John 17:1-26
…14 I have given them your word and the
world has hated them, for they are not of
the world any more than I am of the world.
15 My prayer is not that you take them out
of the world but that you protect them
from the evil one. 16 They are not of the
world, even as I am not of it…

John 17:1-26
…17 Sanctifythem by the truth; your word is
truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I
have sent them into the world. 19 For them
I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly
sanctified. 20 “My prayer is not for them
alone. I pray also for those who will believe
in me through their message, …

John 17:1-26
… 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as
you are in me and I am in you. May they also be
in us so that the world may believe that you
have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that
you gave me, that they may be one as we are
one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be
brought to complete unity to let the world know
that you sent me and have loved them even as
you have loved me….

John 17:1-26
…24 “Father, I want those you have given
me to be with me where I am, and to see
my glory, the glory you have given me
because you loved me before the creation
of the world…

John 17:1-26
…. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world
does not know you, I know you, and they
know that you have sent me. 26 I have
made you known to them, and will
continue to make you known in order that
the love you have for me may be in them
and that I myself may be in them.”

‘More than anything else prayer is about
training one's hungers and longings to
correspond with God's will for us and it is
what the Christian faith is all about.’

Jeremiah 29:12-13
‘Then you will call upon Me and come and
pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will
seek Me and find Me when you seek Me
with all your heart. I will be found by you,
declares the Lord…’

CALVIN MILLER,
‘…What is essential is the sense of God's
presence during dark seasons of
questioning.... Our need for specific
answers is dissolved in the greater issue of
the lordship of Christ over all questions --
those that have answers and those that
don't.'

Paul Waitman Hoon,
'How often have we craved light on our life
in the world, only to be summoned to
ponder our destiny in eternity. How often
have we been preoccupied with the church
local and instead found our vision turned to
the church triumphant and universal...

Paul Waitman Hoon,
... And how often have we asked that
worship bless our souls with peace, only to
hear the lesson for the day calling us to a
holy warfare. How often have we desired
strength to overcome the world, only to
learn that we are to be stoned and sawn
asunder in the world...

Paul Waitman Hoon,
... How often have we sought comfort to
our sorrows and instead found the sorrows
of the world added to our own. Such
reversals may be strange to men. But only
such contradiction answers to realities
both relevant and irrelevant that are at the
heart of the church's worship.'

Matthew 6:9-10
‘ Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your Kingdom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven.’

"Your Kingdom Come"
"Your Will Be Done"

‘It is ultimately a conversational
relationship in which God does for us what
we cannot do for ourselves.’
‘It is not trying to persuade God to rethink
His will but the means through which God
reshapes us into a person who desires His
will and is content to receive it, regardless
of what it entails.’

‘They tell me, Lord, that when I seem
To be in speech with you,
Since but one voice is heard, it's all a
dream, One talker aping two...

... Sometimes it is, yet not as they conceive
it. Rather, I seek in myself the things I
hoped to say, But lo! my wells are dry...

... Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The listener's role and through
My dumb lips breathe and into utterance
wake...

... The thoughts I never knew.
And thus you neither need reply
Nor can; thus,. while we seem
Two talkers, thou art One forever, and I
No dreamer, but thy dream.’

Matthew 26:39
"My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be
taken from me. Yet not as I, will, but as you
will"

"My Father, if it is not possible for this cup
to be taken away unless I drink it, may your
will be done" (v 42)

"...like drops of blood falling to the
ground." (Luke 22:44)

WHY DO PRAYERS GO UNANSWERED?
‘But if one understands the purpose of
prayer — and, more to the point, the
purpose of life — the unanswered prayer
becomes more endurable in light of the
bigger picture.’

THROUGH PRAYER GOD IS TEACHING US
1. Humility
2. Spirituality
3. Faith

Prayer is the assurance that our Lord
superintends over our lives in our needs
and our dependencies, in our successes
and accomplishments.

‘Faith is that sublime hourly dependence
on God — our conviction that even though
we may not get what we want or think we
need, we know and love the One who
denies us in this instance for His good
reason and for our ultimate good.’

1. Humility
2. Spirituality
3. Faith
4. Fellowship

‘The inbuilt danger within all of us is that
no matter what God does, someone will
wish he had done it differently.’

1. Humility
2. Spirituality
3. Faith
4. Fellowship
5. Understanding

Does Prayer Make Any Difference?

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