You know, there is often a question underneath a lot of Christian conversations about prayer that we do not always say out loud:
Does prayer actually do anything?
We may never actually phrase it that bluntly, but we feel it.
We may pray for someone who is sick, and they don't get better.
We pray for a door to open, but yet it stays shut.
We ask God for direction, but then everything still feels unclear.
Then another question enters the picture: if God already knows everything, and if God is truly sovereign over what happens, why are we telling God what we need in the first place?
That is the tension behind the newest video I recently published.
This teaching originally came from the full episode of The Power of Prayer Podcast episode 2. The complete episode dives deeper into why Jesus prayed, how prayer fits with God’s sovereignty, and also why prayer is more than giving God information.
But I also wanted to make a shorter and more focused version that dealt with one question:
Are we accomplishing anything when we pray, or are we simply speaking religious words?
I didn't want the answer to be a slogan.
“Prayer changes everything” may sound encouraging, but what does that actually mean?
Does prayer force God to change His plans?
Does enough faith pressure Him into doing what we ask?
Is prayer mainly a way to make ourselves feel better?
Those are very different ideas, and I do not believe Scripture allows us to treat them as though they are the same.
One mistake is to treat prayer like a spiritual technique.
In that view, the right words, enough confidence, or a strong enough mental state can produce the result we want. God slowly becomes less like the sovereign Lord and more like a power we are trying to activate.
That is not biblical prayer.
But there is another mistake on the opposite side.
We can believe so strongly in God’s sovereignty that we begin acting as though our prayers do not matter at all.
God already knows.
God already has a plan.
Whatever will happen is going to happen.
So why ask?
That sounds logical at first, but it does not match the way people pray throughout Scripture.
Acts 4 has become one of the clearest passages for me on this subject.
The early church openly acknowledged that the death of Jesus happened according to God’s determined purpose. They were not confused about God’s sovereignty.
Then they prayed.
They asked God to give them boldness.
And Scripture tells us that God answered.
The place was shaken, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God boldly.
God knew what He intended to do, and their prayer still mattered.
That pattern appears repeatedly:
The knowledge and sovereignty of God did not make prayer pointless. It gave prayer its foundation.
One of the most helpful truths for me is that God does not merely determine outcomes. He also works through means.
God provides food, but He often does it through rain, soil, farmers, stores, work, and ordinary daily provision.
God brings people to faith, but He uses Scripture, preaching, conversations, friendship, witness, and the work of His people.
In the same way, God has chosen to use prayer.
Prayer is not us informing an unaware God.
It is not us overpowering an unwilling God.
It is one of the means God has commanded and appointed.
That does not make every prayer a guarantee that we will receive exactly what we requested. Jesus Himself prayed with a real desire and real submission:
“Not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Biblical prayer includes both.
A real request.
Real dependence.
Real submission.
I do not believe prayer is powerful because our words contain power by themselves.
Our words do not create reality.
We do not manifest outcomes through confidence or positive thinking.
Prayer is powerful because God is powerful.
He hears.
He reigns.
He commands His people to pray.
And He chooses to work through prayer according to His will.
There will still be seasons when prayer feels unanswered. There will still be waiting, grief, confusion, and times when we do not understand what God is doing.
But silence is not the same as absence, and mystery is not the same as meaninglessness.
The shorter video is here:
The complete podcast episode is here:
Have you ever reached a point where prayer began to feel pointless?
Was it because nothing seemed to change, because God already knew what you needed, or because you were struggling to trust His will?
I would genuinely like to hear how you have wrestled with that question.
You can also submit a prayer request privately through The Power of Prayer Ministry:
