I was reading a book about D. L. Moody when I came across this simple sentence which stated, “Prayer can do anything that God can do.” I stopped. This thought needed some time to roll around in my head.
If the author was saying the power was “in” prayer then no I couldn’t accept his premise. There is only one true God, and by His sovereign authority, He does anything He wills to do. So, was this author teaching heresy? No, I was confident what he said was true. This truth wassomething I already knew, the author had just awakened it within me.
So, as I’m writing this, my mind is exploding with Scripture passages that are all being tied together. It is similar to when my wife makes a quilt. She makes all these squares of clothes and then sews them together. This reawakening is sewing patches of God’s Word together within me.
Prayer is finding God’s will, asking God to change me, not just to accept His will but to be an advocate, a cheerleader for God’s will. Moreover, to trust God to do what needs to be done concerning the petition that I’ve made to Him in prayer. I’ve given God a patch of cloth, but it’s up to Him when, where, how, and if He will sew it into the quilt of humanity. I know this because 1 John 5:14 (NIV) says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
So, yes, prayer can do anything that God can do because prayer is asking God for something and then being willing to be changed to receive God’s answer. Prayer is us talking with God. We can thank Jesus, our Savior, for the “with God.” Jesus is Emmanuel meaning “God with us.” (Mt. 1:23) It’s through my Savior that I can speak with the Father. Now that’s good news!