Some days, reading the news feels overwhelming—stories of war, violence, and poverty seem endless. It can feel like the world is drifting further from what God intended. With so much pain and negativity, it’s tempting to tune it all out and pretend it’s not happening. After all, what difference can one person make?
That’s exactly what Satan wants—he wants us to feel helpless, like we’re stuck and nothing will change. But that’s a lie. We’re not powerless. There is something powerful we all have the ability to do: we can pray.
You might be wondering, “Does prayer actually make a difference? Can it really help?”
Yes. Yes, it does.
We see in James 5:16 tells us that “…The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” History also shows us time and time again that prayer can be world-changing. Let me give you just one example.
On an island in Scotland lived two elderly sisters, Peggy and Christine. Peggy was 82, and Christine was 84. Peggy was completely blind, and Christine had such bad arthritis, she could hardly move. Due to their health, they were unable to attend church in person, and they didn’t have Zoom or YouTube to watch it. Despite that, they had a great love for the church and were greatly burdened by the fact that there were no young people attending public worship. You would think, given their situation, that there was nothing they could do about the problem, beyond worrying and complaining about it. But Peggy and Christine chose a different path: they committed to praying about it.
They prayed twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. They would get on their knees at 10 pm and stay there until three or four in the morning, praying for the young people and the church.
After weeks of committed prayer, Peggy received a vision from God of a packed church, crowded with young people, and an unknown minister standing in the pulpit. She then called her minister, shared the vision she saw, and told him it was time to act.
She suggested he should get together with the elders and deacons of the church and pray. So on Tuesdays and Fridays, the men would pray in a barn where there was more room, and the women would pray in their cottage. For several weeks, they poured out their hearts in prayer, asking God to pour out His Spirit on their church. But to their surprise, nothing noteworthy happened.
Then one night, in the middle of praying, one of the deacons stood up and said, “This is humbug to pray for God to pour out his spirit when we ourselves are not rightly related to God.”
He raised his hand and asked the Lord, “Do I have clean hands? Is my heart pure?” He got no further. He fell prostrate on the ground in a trance of prayer. From that point on, God’s Spirit spread across the Scottish Island and remarkable things began to happen.
Young people at dance halls would feel the pull of God’s Spirit leading them to the church building at 11 o’clock at night. The local bar would close because the people at the bar felt drawn to the church building to hear the minister preach.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Scotland began in earnest because of the committed prayer of two elderly, disabled women, who were devoted to the Lord and His church. The spiritual health of Scotland changed because two women prayed. These bold women and the humble men leading the church showed us that there is power in committed, persistent prayer.
I’ll be the first to admit, it can be hard to stay committed to prayer. When days and weeks go by and we don’t see an answer, we can easily lose heart and give up. But in Luke 18, Jesus tells his disciples a parable about a widow who kept begging a judge to give her justice against her adversary. The judge didn’t care about justice and refused to give her what she wanted. But this woman was persistent, and after begging and pleading for a long time, the judge finally gave her the justice she was seeking. Not because he cared about her, but because he was simply tired of her asking.
Then in verses 6-7, Jesus said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Jesus reminds us of the character of the God we pray to. Our God is a just and righteous God, and He delights in listening to us as we consistently and persistently bring our requests to Him.
Prayer is faith in action, and it has powerful results. The power is not in the vocabulary we use, or the eloquence of our perfectly curated prayers, but in the name in whom we pray. Each time we pray and say the words “in the name of Jesus,” we invoke the power of the One who conquered sin and death. There is no other power in heaven and earth greater than that.
And just like Peggy and Christine, our consistent prayers can change the world around us. The full passage of James 5:13-16 encourages us, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
So, the next time you feel overwhelmed, like there’s nothing you can do to change things in your own life or the world around you, don’t just worry about it; do something about it. Get on your knees and ask, beg, and plead persistently in faith for the God of the universe to intervene in the power of Jesus’ name for the broken and hurting in this world. You might be surprised at what God might do. Your prayers in the hands of our Almighty God have the power to change the world.
