How much can one person's prayers change things?

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catholicwifeforlife1

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Can anyone tell me how prayer works? This is a silly question but I am serious. If only one person prays for something to happen that is in God’s will, and they pray for it with a burning passion, will God answer their prayer? For instance, if I pray, with all I have, for an end to abortion and the assault on traditional marriage, will God grant my prayers, or does he want there to be more people to pray for it before he grants the prayer? I know he isn’t a genie, but I also know there are so many people who have been praying for an and to abortion, but the culture of death seems stronger than ever. Are these prayers working or is God just taking longer than we expect?
 
The truth is that we do not know what God is doing or planning to do, or what effects our prayers are having, except that we can be assured that the effect is positive. We do not know, for example, whether our prayers might actually be influencing some pregnant lady to decide not to have an abortion, or a clinic to close or not get funding. We simply do not see the “results” of our prayers and we need to have confidence in God.

God will answer prayers in his own good time and the answer may not be what we expect. It may be something we weren’t even thinking about. It may not be exactly what we wanted.

Prayer is a force for good and in addition to just being an “ask” for stuff, it is helping us to grow in grace and grow in our relationship with God. The more one prays, the more one sees and feels God working in their life. By “working in your life” I do not mean you always get the thing you asked for right away or even within a reasonable time. Sometimes the “answer” after a long while is something totally different, some other lesson God wanted you to learn, or something thrown in your path to test you.

Prayer is complicated. Those who say, “Gimme this, God” and then lose heart when it doesn’t come right away or even for years and years are missing the point. Sorry this is so vague but that’s the best I can do.
 
I can’t give you a single, definitive, smoking-gun answer to your question, but let me share something from my own life.

If I have an urgent need, and I don’t pray first, I will often respond from a place of panic or fear. Then the other person responds to my fear with their own response and so on and so forth.

If I pray first, and reply to the situation from a place of love and trust in the Lord, my response is more reasoned and calm, and I’m better able to listen and learn, and that sets the tone for that interaction and the subsequent ones.

Do I always get what I want? No. But I don’t make the situation worse, either…

Peace!
 
Some young guy asked a little old lady at church - to pray for him -
She said - " go pray yourself "
He was astounded and said, " But God wont hear me " 😧
She said " Yes He will. He’s never heard your voice before "
😇
 
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Brittany said:
Even if we do not get what we ask for, the very fact that we are recognizing that we are dependent on God by asking is important to our spiritual growth. So even if we suspect that the answer will be “no,” we should still ask anyways
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Jesus said many times “ask and you shall receive.” Should he have said “ask and you shall receive only what God considers is good for you?”
 
Yes he did: And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do.
 
I won’t answer here in terms of contradiction or lie, but why did you say what you did when you must have known of this quote from Jesus? That is plain misleading. Whoever wrote James does not have the same authority as the words of Jesus.
 
I know right! That was really good bible quoting and a great explanation.
 
Sometimes God may intend something else and your prayers are like the straw that broke the camels back, but in a good way.
 
One person’s prayers can change the whole world for that person. Or it can change the whole world for everyone. “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

Ours are at least hopefully the first but likely somewhere in between the two. 🙂
 
If “one person prays”, like you said, it should please God, because i believe He’s asking you to pray for that cause-in this case and “end to abortion”. More people praying helps, but if it was only your intention/prayer, i believe He’d listen to you. And as we know, God doesn’t answer the way we want, but sometimes yes.
 
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catholicwifeforlife1 said:
Can anyone tell me how prayer works?
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God can , but I certainly can’t .

God is the supreme one in that encounter we call prayer .

But do I give God much attention ?

Do I listen to God in prayer ?

The Holy Father is constantly teaching of the need for silence in prayer .

Pope Francis has spoken these profound words about prayer .

“In our prayers, we often find ourselves facing the silence of God. We almost experience a sense of abandonment; it seems that God does not listen and does not respond. But this silence, as happened to Jesus, does not signify absence. Christians know that the Lord is present and listens, even in moments of darkness and pain, of rejection and solitude. Jesus assures His disciples and each one of us that God is well aware of our needs at every moment of our lives”.

“For us, who are so frequently concerned with operational effectiveness and with the results … we achieve, the prayer of Jesus is a reminder that we need to stop, to experience moments of intimacy with God, ‘detaching ourselves’ from the turmoil of daily life in order to listen, to return to the ‘root’ which nourishes and sustains our existence. One of the most beautiful moments of Jesus’ prayer is when, faced with the sickness, discomfort and limitations of his interlocutors, He addresses His Father in prayer, thus showing those around him where they must go to seek the source of hope and salvation”.
 
Spiritual maturity is some thing that can be taught. So you do get specific answers to prayer.
But if you are not getting prayer answers as saint Paul taught in 1cor. 14:25-26
When you meet bring a prophetic answer to prayer a revelation a psalm a tongue and interpretation.

If you don’t know people that get answers
Then you are dealing with someone who as saint Paul said are “babes”
Still drinking milk.
 
There’s been a couple rare days -
when I actually knew - someone prayed for me.
I couldn’t say who, of course,
but someone’s prayer - was acknowledged - for me 🙂
Great feeling.

It’s those - moments - when I shamefully know -
that another person’s prayer - is often more stronger than my very own -
And that I should always consider others, before myself.
 
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