The Answer Is Prayer

The Answer is Prayer
by Marilyn Mackenzie

Some of the greatest prayers are the simplest ones. The prayers of a child are certainly dear to our Lord, for they are sincere and heartfelt.

Once, I had the opportunity to teach a class of five-year-olds in Vacation Bible School in a church that was not my own. So many kids showed up for the first day of VBS that my friend called in a panic and asked for my help. I gladly served, and to this day I recall the blessings I received by being ministered to by those children.

The kids I taught were all children who had been in church since they were born. They spent time in the nursery and preschool classes. Finally, they were "old enough" to attend VBS, and they were excited.

These children, although brought up in the church had not had the chance to pray - either in church or at home - as they desired. After our lessons each day, we sat on the floor and I allowed them to take turns praying. Their parents watched through the small window in the classroom door as the kids prayed and prayed and prayed. And their parents waited and waited and waited. Who was I to stop the prayers of children, even if the parents were waiting at the door?

One boy simply asked, "Holy Ghost, help me pray." Then he got quiet.

A girl asked, "Well, are you going to pray?"

The boy responded, "God's Spirit is going so fast that I can't keep up. Just listen with your own heart."

During lesson time, one boy shared that Jesus was like mayonaise in his tuna sandwich. I believe he had heard the lesson as a children's sermon. Still, he was able to pass along what he heard and remembered. He explained, "Tuna fish is pretty yucky unless you have the mayonaise mixed through and through. And life without Jesus mixed through and through is also pretty yucky." I think that explains it.

That same child prayed, "Thanks, Jesus, for being the mayonaise in my life."

The last child to pray always thanked God for allowing me to be their teacher. But they didn't realize that I was the one truly blessed to have them as my teachers.


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While searching for stories and articles for my pastor, I discovered some wonderful quotations about prayer. Here are some that I found:

When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy. Corrie Ten Boom

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. Abraham Lincoln

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? Corrie Ten Boom

Is the Son of God praying in me, or am I dictating to Him? . . . Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is a most initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God. If the Son of God is formed in us by regeneration, He will press forward in front of our common sense and change our attitude to the things about which we pray. Oswald Chambers

Pray, and let God worry. Martin Luther

Intercessory prayer might be defined as loving our neighbor on our knees.
Charles Brent

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The spectacle of a nation praying is more awe-inspiring than the explosion of an atomic bomb. The force of prayer is greater than any possible combination of man-controlled powers, because prayer is man's greatest means of trapping the infinite resources of God. J. Edgar Hoover

Behind every work of God you will always find some kneeling form.
Dwight Moody

Prayer is the mortar that holds our house together. Mother Teresa

Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference. Max Lucado

Don't pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it.
Corrie Ten Boom

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace!
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy. Saint Francis of Assisi

A grandfather was walking through his yard when he heard his granddaughter repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that sounded like a prayer. He asked her what she was doing. The little girl explained: "I'm praying, but I can't think of exactly the right words, so I'm just saying all the letters, and God will put them together for me, because He knows what I'm thinking." Charles B. Vaughan

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
Saint Theresa of Jesus

Prayer is the best test of an individual, and it is also the best test of a church. A church can be flourishing: She can be successful in terms of organizations, she can be tremendously active and appear to be prosperous, but if you want to know whether she is a real church or not, examine the amount of prayer that takes place. Lloyd Jones

Prayer begins where human capacity ends. Marian Anderson

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. Corrie Ten Boom

When the fire of prayer goes out, the barrenness of busy-ness takes over.
George Carey

Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. Adam Clarke

Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life.
Jonathan Edwards

The most eloquent prayer is the prayer through hands that heal and bless. The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless. Billy Graham

The sovereign cure for worry is prayer. William James

Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God.
Diana Robinson


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As I searched God's word about prayer and praying, I was reminded of the Lord's Prayer. An EMT once told me that people who are dying (or think they are dying) often recite the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

I once helped out with a youth group where the young people were asked to write a prayer, using the Lord's Prayer as an example. What wonderful prayers they created. The youth director even allowed them to print them up on poster board and put them on the youth room walls. (Alas, I'm not sure some of the church members thought that re-wording the Lord's Prayer was a good idea.)

Bruce Wilkerson wrote entire books, devotionals and study guides about the Jabez prayer. It is also a great prayer model:

1 Chronicles 4:10 NIV
Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.

The Apostle Paul modeled praying as well. He prayed for churches and for leaders. What a great place our world would be if we all took the time to pray for each other as Paul prayed:

Colossians 1:9-14 NIV
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

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