Effective Prayer

What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

- St. James 4:1-3

Most everyone would concede that his prayer life isn’t what it should be, or at least, isn’t what he would like it to be. No doubt each of us has had the experience of feeling spiritually dry and empty in our prayers. Haven’t all of us tried to pray about something which is important to us, and yet we seemed to get no answer? St. James describes this very experience: “You ask, and do not receive..."

When we look at Scripture, we see that for our prayer to be acceptable and effective, there are certain ingredients or conditions which should be present. In fact, there are three things shown to us by our Lord Jesus Christ in His divine teaching. Let’s look briefly at them:

First, our prayer is to be made in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus taught His disciples this. “Whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you.” This is deeper than it might first appear. Praying in Christ’s name is more than simply using His name in each prayer before it can be accepted by the Father. No, to pray in Christ’s Name is to pray as members of Christ. It is to come before our Father, not in our own name, but in His Name as being members of His Body, as being inspired by His Spirit, as not possessing any claim to be heard on our own merits, but only on Christ’s merits. This means that we can only pray in Christ’s Name by seeking to be in perfect harmony with Him. If our prayer is in Christ’s Name, then it will be a prayer such as Christ Himself would have prayed, which means that it always, implicitly or explicitly, includes the petition, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Even if this isn’t said in so many words, it must always be our intention, if the prayer is to be made in Christ’s Name. So, if our prayer should contain any request which we make in ignorance, not knowing that we are praying for something that would be harmful if it was granted, we can be certain that it will not be granted, because such a thing would not be in accordance with God’s Divine Will. This means we can be assured that our prayers will be answered only insofar as they may be best for us.

The second condition of effective prayer is that we love the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, this is what our Lord teaches, when He said, “The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me.” There are times when the idea of loving God is a difficult thing, because it is not easy to know how to love someone who is Invisible, Eternal, and Omnipresent. But this difficulty vanishes when we understand that to love our Lord Jesus Christ is to love God. We can love Him, although we have never seen Him. But it is impossible to have any serious thoughts about Him and His loving work for us, without feeling our hearts and minds overflow with a sense of love. We love Him, because He first loved us; and when through His love, we learn to love, He loves us all the more, which then kindles ever more love within us. When we think of His words, and His saving act of sacrifice, how can we not love God?

There is a third condition which we must fulfil if we would offer prayer which is effective and acceptable to the Father. It is the condition of faith. Once again, Jesus teaches us, “The Father Himself loves you, because you have believed that I came from God.” We must believe that He whom we love, while He condescended to become one of us, was at the same time one with the Father. The love of our Lord, while it is in the highest sense a true human love, yet it is also a Divine love. It is this which gives it its value in the eyes of God. As such, it becomes love and faith in one act.

Consider the power and the dignity of this weapon of prayer which is placed in our hands by our Lord Himself. By entrusting it to us, He admits us to a share in the government of His kingdom of grace. Prayer is at the same time the refuge of the weak and the strength of the mighty, since it is the way by which we participate in the life of Christ, who has overcome the world. And because He has “overcome” – conquered – the things of this world, so in Him we can do the same. We can overcome those things that would try to drag us away from Him.

Surely prayer is one of the greatest powers given to us by God, and we see the results of prayer in the unexpected and hidden character of God’s workings among us. Don’t think for a moment that what happens for good in the world is not a result of effective prayer. And how much more might be accomplished by prayer if we had greater faith in it, and greater perseverance in offering it!

Prayer is not intended to do away with human effort; rather, it is intended to guide it, to sanctify it, to rescue it from being merely fruitless worry, and to make it an act done in the Name of Christ. We must learn to value and to use this great weapon of prayer. We must approach our Heavenly Father as His children, coming to Him, not in our own strength, but in that strength which is ours as members of Christ’s Body. Through prayer we can learn to grow in love for our Lord, and in faith in Him, and so our prayers will become more and more effective. We will learn greater patience, even though our prayers don’t appear to be answered immediately, because we will rest in the knowledge that all is safely in the hands of God.

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Painting: "Le Pater Noster"

by James Tissot (1836−1902)