Does Prayer Change the World?

Each year at the beginning of Anzac week, St Andrew’s Cathedral congregations take time to pray for our Defence and Police personnel currently serving overseas. Our nation asks these people to put their lives at risk for us. It’s only right that we support them and call upon God to protect them in the dangerous situations in which we have placed them.

But does prayer make a difference? It’s a very natural response to troubling and worrying situations but does it change anything? Some people, who wouldn’t normally consider themselves religious, turn to God in prayer when confronted with life threatening situations such as the dangers of war zones. Many worried families turn to God and find peace in prayer. But does prayer change anything?

Prayer certainly changes the person who prays. By praying regularly we develop our dependence upon God in a way that produces genuine humility. It calms our anxieties and gives us the opportunity to process our worries. It helps us see ourselves, and our situation in a larger, less threatening, perspective. It’s comforting to call upon somebody greater than ourselves when we are not able to control our situation. For example, many people who have problems with addiction, have found that the first part of recovery is to recognize this. We have a problem, we cannot manage and that we need a “higher power” to deal with it.

But does God deal with it?Does prayer only change the person who prays or through prayer does God also change our state of affairs? Does it alter the outcome of the situation? Or is prayer playing mind games – albeit with good results – pretending that there is somebody listening to our requests who is willing and able to respond to our petitions? Is God able to interfere with “Nature” and answer our prayerful requests?

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