Heartprints

Change Comes Through Prayer

Have you seen a need for change in your life? Would you love to see some changes in the world around you? Would you love to teach your children how to pray effectively?

I have found that prayer and reading God’s Word are the two foundational disciplines that are essential for change. To be quite honest, prayer keeps me in the Word and the Word keeps me in prayer.  Prayer, sadly, can be just a passive conversation, “God bless us everyone,” as we check off all the “to do’s” on our spiritual “to do” list. This is not what God intended.

Prayer is hard work and takes time and focus if change will be the result. God makes some promises about prayer in 1 John 5: “14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (emphasis mine)

The best way to know that we are praying according to His will is to pray His Word back to Him. Some of the most energizing times I have had in His Word or in prayer happened as I took a chapter of the Bible and prayed it back to Him on behalf of all His people around the world.  Prayer changes our world when we pray according to His will.

Prayer also changes us. In Philippians 4 we have another promise: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Refuse to fix things in your way, timing, or power. Go to God confessing your helplessness, with a petition “Father, You said….,” and give thanksgiving for this opportunity once again to trust Him. When I do this His peace that is beyond explanation fills me, guards my heart, keeps me from being anxious and making poor decisions. He is faithful to change our world and change us when we are faithful to do the hard work of praying according to His will.

When His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray the Lord’s Prayer, He taught them these principles:

 Go to the Father praying in His holy name- who loves you and has the responsibility and power to meet your need.

Ask that His kingdom be the focus of His intent in meeting your every need.

Pray that His will be done on earth even as it is in Heaven.

Ask for your daily needs

Forgive those who need to be forgiven

Ask to be protected from evil

1 John 5:14-15 teaches us to pray according to His will and if we do, He will hear and He will answer. He wants only what is best. He does only what is best. In prayer we can expect and ask for nothing less. As we work with our children, there is nothing more powerful that we can teach them than to teach them to pray God’s Word back to Him.

Suzi Ciliberti works for Christar, a Missions Agency that plants churches among least-reached Asians worldwide. She served in Japan for two years as a single missionary and another nine with her husband and two children, then the family returned to the states. She and her husband have been serving in the US Mobilization Center since 2000. As a part of the Member Care Department, Suzi is consultant to families with children. She has been working as a children’s teacher since she was 17 and began her training under Child Evangelism Fellowship. She has taught in the church, as a school teacher for two years in a Christian elementary school, and as a speaker for adults training to work with children. She has also trained children, who are a part of families that work overseas, in their identity in Christ. She brings 44 years of teaching experience to her work. She loves creative writing as well as teaching and has found great fulfillment in combining the two as she blogs for Heartprints. She finds it a great privilege and joy to serve the Lord and His people. One of her favorite verses is Deuteronomy 4:10b, "Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children."

Leave a Reply