by Geoffrey Schmitt

Created on: January 12, 2010   Last Updated: January 14, 2010

Our consumer culture is interested in results. Business always wants to know the bottom line is better than it was this time last year. We are often ready to debate how the means justify the ends because we want to see results. Another example is the plethora of professional sports. In that arena the saying is “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”  No wonder we want to know how to pray effectively.

 For many people prayer seems to be about getting God to cooperate with our wishes. For the most part we honestly hope this coincides with God’s desires. We aren’t trying to get God to do something he doesn’t want to do. We want those we love to be well. We want safe travel. We want peace and justice. We want our plans to succeed.  

Sometimes prayer seems to be about getting answers, especially for the big question: Why? There are those times in life when things don’t go our way. Accidents happen. Tragedy strikes. Elections are lost. Finances collapse. Jobs are lost. Why, we pray, did this have to happen?  These are not particularly “effective” prayers.  A better choice is to pray, “Now that this has happened,  how am I to live?”

There is a great line in the movie Shadowlands based on the book, Surprised by Joy, by C.S. Lewis. The story is about Lewis’ late in life marriage and the death of his wife, Joy, to cancer. In the midst of her illness one of Lewis’ faculty colleges accosts him in the hall. “Do you think all this prayer will change God’s mind?” He asks. Anthony Hopkins, playing Lewis replies, “When I pray I don’t expect to change God.  I expect God will change me.”

For Christians, prayer is first of all about participating in a relationship with God. It is two way communication, where the object is primarily about knowing and loving one another.  “Effective” is perhaps not the best choice of words. One does not ask if you have an effective marriage. It is good, or bad. It is faithful, or not. It is loving, trusting, nurturing. I’m not interested in being an effective husband. So it is with our relationship with God and its primary feature of relationship: prayer.

One might ask, was Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane effective? “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet, not my will, but yours be done.”

However,there are times and situations when “effective” just might be the right word. Jesus said, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to that mountain move and it will be moved.” There are prayers of command that are more in the name of God than expressed to God.  When we speak to others, to some thing, or some situation in Jesus name and by his authority we can be most effective.

Jesus prayed these kinds of prayers.

“Rise up and walk.” “Go your sins are forgiven.” “Be clean.”

There are other prayers we may pray with confidence. Confession of sin and confessions of faith are surely always answered in the positive. 

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