A Word to Prayer

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

“It is not so much as prayer changes things, but prayer changes me and I change things.” Oswald Chambers from, ‘My Utmost For His Highest.’
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It could be rightly said that when we pray we are not petitioning the Lord to change His mind, but rather that He changes our minds so that our desires line up with His. We know this in part because God said, “For I am the LORD, I change not.” As we approach Him with a subjected mindset [in prayer] it will be revealed to us in a most practical way that He is ‘our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ This recognition strengthens both faith and relationship, and consequently we are transformed. In the Oswald Chambers’ quote, he said, “And I change things,” but I sense he recognized that God is the changer of things and we are just His yielded vessels.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5

Prayer keeps us connected. To suspend prayer is to sever the branch to which we are affixed and to hinder prayer is to effect a withering death. As it pertains to His will (and our change), we are simply the conduit by which His blessings flow. If we fail to yield there will still be fruit, but it will be attributed to someone else. In other words, God’s plan will be achieved regardless if we are involved or not. However, God wants us onboard, engaged, and motivated; He wants to bless us as He blesses; He wants to transform us as He transforms. As we are prayerfully connected, both heart and circumstances will be altered.

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