Does prayer work?

What story are you telling?

Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash

I learned about the effectiveness of prayer on the day that I graduated high school.

It was May 29, 2015, and I had achieved the goal I’d worked for since seventh grade: I was going to give a speech at my high school graduation.

I knew I could write the speech; I’d been working on it (at least in my mind) for over a year by the time graduation finally rolled around. What I wasn’t counting on was how difficult it would be to deliver those words I’d worked so hard to craft.

That morning, my high school class of 100 students gathered in the gym for rehearsal. After we’d practiced lining up, walking, standing, and sitting to our teachers’ satisfaction, those of us with speaking parts stuck around to practice one final time.

This is where things went downhill for me.

I stood behind the podium, adjusted the microphone, and looked around at the empty gym that would, in just a few hours, be full to bursting with parents, grandparents, friends’ family, former teachers, pastors, cousins, friends from other schools—basically everyone I’d ever known and loved. My nerves got the best of me; I totally choked, stumbling over my words, unable to muster any of the poise or gravitas that the moment that evening would surely demand.

Things were not looking good.

We had a few hours between rehearsal and the ceremony to get ready, and I spent that time being a little sad about high school being over (change is hard!) and asking people to pray that I’d be able to deliver my speech with some amount of grace that evening.

At long last, the moment came. I took the stage, bedecked in cords and stoles, and flipped the binder open to my speech.

I have two memories of standing on that stage: one in which the gym is empty and I’m seemingly unable to speak a single coherent sentence, and one in which it’s completely full and I’m speaking with confidence, blanketed with a supernatural sense of calm.

The speech went off without a hitch. After all these years, I’m still proud of that moment.

But, more than the pride of the moment; more than the relief of being done with high school; more than the oppressive heat of an un-air-conditioned gym in Alabama in late May; the thing about that night that is impressed the deepest on my mind and in my heart was that otherworldly peace.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the peace and calm I experienced that night was a direct answer to our prayers, a gift of grace from God.

With an experience like that under my belt, you’d think I wouldn’t have any trouble recognizing when something that happens in my life is a direct answer to a prayer. That is, unfortunately, not the case. More on that below.

A sign of Jonah (but not the one you’re thinking of)

The book of Jonah is fascinating, four short chapters with sufficient literary depth and spiritual truths for a lifetime of learning and reflection.

For our purposes this week, we’re going to skip about three quarters of the way through and pick up at the end of chapter three. After his initial disobedience and run-in with a sea creature typically known as The Big Fish, Jonah repents and goes to Nineveh to prophesy to the people there and urge them to repent of their wicked ways.

The best kind of plot twist happens, and the people of Nineveh actually do repent of their wickedness and turn to Yahweh! As a result, God relents and doesn’t bring about the judgment he’d originally planned.

By all accounts, this outcome is as good as it gets for the Ninevites…unless you’re Jonah, who didn’t take the news particularly well.

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.’ And the LORD said, ‘Do you do well to be angry?’”

Jonah 4:1-4

He’s not upset that the Ninevites repented—his issues are far more self-serving than that, really. In essence, he’s mad that he had to go to Nineveh (and go through the whole swallowed-by-a-fish thing) when he “knew” that God was going to be merciful anyway.

Setting aside the fact that his reasoning is ad hoc at best, I recognized something in his thought process…because it’s the same thought process I’ve caught myself in a few times here lately. Allow me to explain.

Acts of God or just coincidences?

In its simplest form, Jonah’s reasoning looks something like:

Nineveh wicked → God relents anyway → Nineveh fine now

If this were the whole story, I can see why he might be annoyed. Why put him through all this trouble if Nineveh was going to be fine, anyway? It’s very clearly not the whole story, though…the narrative actually goes something like this:

Nineveh wicked → Jonah prophesies in the city, making them aware of their wickedness → Nineveh repents → God relents

At best, Jonah’s mischaracterization of events is an honest misunderstanding, a failure to believe that his obedience could possibly have an impact on the city he’s been sent to. At worst, it’s a deliberate reorganization of the facts designed to justify the fear and disobedience he let take hold in the beginning of the story.

Regardless of his motive, his retelling is familiar. Mine tends to look something like this:

Situation exists → I pray for God’s intervention → Situation improves or resolves → I move on with my life

When in reality, the story should be:

Situation exists → I pray for God’s intervention → God intervenes → Situation improves or resolves → I turn to God in praise and gratitude

I’m writing God’s active intervention out of the story and attributing the subsequent resolution to coincidence…even as I’m praying for him to intervene.

How does this make sense??

How to ensure your prayers are answered:

Okay, so that subheading is sort of clickbait. Obviously, prayer isn’t about forcing God to act on your behalf, but partnering with him to fulfill your vocation in the world.

How can you better recognize God’s direct intervention in your life?

Perhaps you’ve heard of Hanlon’s razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to ignorance.”

I want to introduce a new heuristic, which I’m calling Moreland’s razor: “Don’t attribute to coincidence what appears to be an answered prayer.”¹

This conversation between God and the believer is an essential element in the Christian walk. It requires not only time spent in prayer, but time spent in gratitude and reflection, taking note of what you’ve laid at his feet and how he’s intervened.

No detail is too small. Did a friend randomly reach out when you were in need of encouragement? Did you gain clarity that allowed you to make a big decision? Did a song on the setlist during worship Sunday happen to speak to your heart?

Write these moments down, and remember them often. Ask Christian friends to share about their answered prayers. God is active, and he hears you.

Now, LMK:

When have you experienced evidence of answered prayers in your life? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

From the archives:

It’s only a little over a month old, but this post from January examines the art of presenting a request to God:

A visual reminder:

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A post shared by @egphill

1. This is inspired by Christian philosopher J.P. Moreland, who discusses the “Intelligent Agent Principle” in his book A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles. The IAP essentially claims that an event with low probability and “independent specialness” is more likely to be the act of an intelligent agent than coincidence. You can read a more thorough description of the principle (plus some examples of it working in Moreland’s life) in this article: https://www.jpmoreland.com/2024/07/08/specific-answers-to-prayer/