Vital Signs: Thursday, March 6, 2025

The Power of Transformative Prayer

"And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words." - ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭26‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Do you ever feel frustrated when you pray? Perhaps it seems as though your prayers only make the situation worse. Or maybe it feels like your prayers just hit the ceiling and never reach heaven. Do you find yourself wishing you could be like the prayer warriors of old—like Elijah, whose prayer stopped and started the rain?

We’ve all been there. In our deepest moments of pain, we cry out to the Lord, yet He doesn’t seem to answer. We wonder if our prayers are even reaching Him. We want to trust God with the situation, yet our minds keep returning to our pain.

"Lord, deliver me from this situation!" we cry. And yet, when we return to work, our boss treats us worse than ever. "God, give me the strength to care for my disabled child," we plead. Yet the next day, nothing seems to have changed—we have more work to do than ever and less strength to do it.

Of course, sometimes the answers to prayer are immediate and miraculous. That is the answer most of us hope for.

"Change the situation now, Lord," we pray—adding, almost as an afterthought, "if that is Your will." We want to believe we are praying in the Lord’s will. We want to believe that our hearts are open to what He desires. Yet, in our sorrow, we seek relief, not the word “wait.”

We want an answer and hope desperately that the answer is yes.

But remember this: the purpose of prayer is not to change God; rather, prayer changes us. It transforms our thoughts, our actions, and our desires.

Resolve to allow prayer to change you.