What The World Needs Now

What the World Needs Now

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16

MANY PEOPLE, INCLUDING CHRISTIANS, read the headlines or look at the troubled lives around them and lament how bad things seem to be. Our hearts break and sympathies swell for people going through hardships and pain. We wish we could help, but our resources and words often fall short. We tell them our prayers are with them—and hope that means something in the end.

It does, if we pray in faith and persistence. If we really want God’s Kingdom to show up in people’s lives—spiritually, mentally, emotionally, relationally, physically, and in every other way that God demonstrates his goodness—we need to spend time interceding for them. This goes beyond offering God a brief mention of their needs, though he hears and often responds to those prayers too. It requires an investment, a bit of diligence, and emotional engagement. Scripture rarely highlights casual prayers; it emphasizes heartfelt, insistent pleas. God is responsive to the love and compassion that energizes us. If we are going to change our families, churches, workplaces, communities, cities, and nations, we will have to pray. And we will need to put our hearts into it.

The world needs heartfelt prayer. Our lives are full of people who need us not only to pray, but to pray in power. We have access to the keys of God’s Kingdom, and we are negligent if we don’t use them. Our prayers for others are as important as the other items on our to-do lists, yet they often fall to the bottom or are forgotten altogether. We need to prioritize them—to find a few more minutes in our day, to fill our downtime with petitions to the Father, to breathe out our requests more intentionally. The seeds we plant in those moments take root and grow over time, whether we notice them growing or not. Like a financial investment that compounds throughout the years, our prayers are used by God to advance his Kingdom in human hearts and relationships. Sow them now, and anticipate the fruitfulness to come. Our earnest prayers are powerful and effective—and one of the best ways to respond to the needs around us.

The greatest thing anyone can do for God and for man is to pray.