01.23.09

And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him." Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there, ’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." - Matthew 17:14-21.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! - Matthew 7:7-11.

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. - 1 Corinthians 3:9.

We are "fellow workers" with God and one of the ways that we are to work spiritually is through prayer. Prayer changes things because God has chosen, ordained it to be so. If we want to make a difference in this world we ought to be praying about everything, all the time, all day long - "pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)." The world around you is shaped by the prayers that you pray or by the lack of prayers that you pray.

Prayer can change things physically. There have been several scientific studies which indicate that prayer is effective in bringing about healing. The website, God and Science dot org, quotes the results of three specific studies which revealed that prayer is effective in reducing congestive heart failure, reducing the amount of medication required, preventing pneumonia, reducing the number of cardiac arrests and the frequency of intubation/ventilation. Another study indicated prayer reduced the length of the hospital stay for those with bloodstream infections. You can read more about these and other studies at http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/prayer.html You can also read the Testimony of Frank Johnson at my website. God healed his wife and also changed him. Here is the link http://www.theburningbush.net/apps/articles/default.asp? articleid=32424& columnid=1873

Prayer will change those around you. While I was a Probation and Parole Officer and for the years, since I have been praying for my clients. Every so often, I will encounter one of them and have been encouraged to hear them tell me how their lives are better now. They tell me about their jobs and their families, and I can only praise God because I know that He is the One who has changed their lives. Of course, there are many whose lives appear to have been unaffected by prayer, but I continue to pray for them.

Prayer will change you. God has changed my life through prayer. A simple little prayer that you can expand and enlarge is the Prayer of Jabez. Asking for God’s blessings upon your life is asking for His will to be done in your life. Asking for God to keep you from evil so that you will not cause pain in the lives of others is asking for His guidance. If you have problems, pray about them and ask others to pray too. Why? Because Prayer Changes Things!!!