Do You Really Believe That Prayer Changes The World?

By Ray Mensah, OneWay's Director of International Ministries

This morning, I opened the YouVersion Bible app on my phone, and this question appeared on the screen:

“Do you really believe that prayer changes the world?”

What a great question for all of us.

It made me think about the conversation Jesus had with Peter after the resurrection. Three times, Jesus asked him:

“Simon, do you love Me?”

“Simon, do you love Me?”

“Do you love Me?”

By the third time, Peter was frustrated. Why did Jesus keep asking the same question?

Perhaps because sometimes there is a difference between what we say we believe and what we actually believe.

So let me ask you:

Do you really believe that prayer changes the world?

Because if we truly believe it, it will change the way we pray. We will pray more. We will pray with greater passion. We will pray with deeper faith and greater expectation that God will act.

And we will pray with persistence.

When prayers seem to go unanswered, many people start to lose hope. Sometimes they simply lose the persistence to press on.

I recently met a lady in Virginia who has prayed for her son to be saved for 50 years. That’s a long time.

When years—or even decades—pass without an answer, it’s easy to lose faith that prayer changes things or that God is listening.

But no matter what we go through or what unanswered prayers we experience, we should have faith that God is a prayer-answering God. The answered prayers in my life—and in the lives of many people I’ve talked to—far outnumber the unanswered ones.

In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable to teach us to "always pray and never give up."

But He didn't just tell us to pray—He showed us what to pray for.

When He looked out at the crowds and saw them as sheep without a shepherd, He gave His disciples a clear command...

“Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Today, more than 3.4 billion people remain unreached with the gospel. And Jesus’ command to us is still the same: pray for workers.

Prayer isn’t a nice addition to the mission—Jesus put prayer at the foundation of it.

Almost every Christian would agree with that statement intellectually. But do we really believe it?

I’ve been in ministry for many years, and I’ve seen that you can pour enormous amounts of money and resources into a ministry and still see very little change. Money can build buildings. Money can provide tools. Money can open doors.

But only God transforms lives.

When we pray, something happens. We bring the needs of people before the God who can do what we cannot. We ask Him to move, to send, to save, to transform.

So let me ask you one more time: Do you really believe that prayer changes the world?

If we do, then let’s pray like we believe it!

Visit our Prayercast.com site for resources to guide you in praying for people around the world.