🙏Is Prayer Enough?🙏

From former President Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and what seems like every liberal media outlet under the sun, the phrases “prayers aren’t enough” or “prayers don’t work” – in response to virtually every mass tragedy in the last few years – is becoming more and more commonplace. There are several flaws I find in this line of thinking.

For starters, the assumption that those of us who pray are ONLY praying and not actually taking any sort of action is just that, an assumption. For most of us, the only time prayer is “the only thing” we do is when there is literally nothing else we can do. When there IS something we can physically do, when there IS an action we can take, we pray for victims and for guidance about HOW to take action, and then we take that action. But sometimes there is just nothing we can do besides pray, especially when the tragedy at hand isn’t right in our own backyards so to speak. When there’s a mass shooting halfway across the country, there isn’t much that we as individuals can do about that. But, for example, when a devastating tornado destroys homes in the next city over, well, that’s something we can help with by assisting with clean-up efforts, bringing food and other essentials to those displaced, or a number of other things that are only possible due to our close proximity. When we see homeless people every day, we can not only pray for them but also do something good for them like buy them a meal or give them a pocket bible.

Those who pray in times of others’ needs are quite often the same people that are doing whatever they can to actually help those people by donating their time and/or resources – while the people complaining about prayer are literally only complaining about prayer and not actually doing anything about it themselves besides virtue signaling with a flag in their social media profile. When unbelievers make a call to action after tragedy strikes, there is no evidence that they have taken any action other than to place blame. Given that they obviously are opposed to prayer, that means they are demanding that we quit praying and take action while they aren’t doing either!!! I’ve also noticed that we are never given ideas on how exactly it is that we’re supposed to help or what exactly we are supposed to do in times of mass tragedy. We’re only told to stop praying and start doing. Why does they not hold themselves to the very standards they are mandating for the rest of us?

I want to be clear that one of the reasons others don’t usually know what kind of actions Christians are taking is because we are not supposed to tell others what we are doing. We are supposed to be humble and just do it. I can say from personal experience that people who know me would be very surprised to find out some of the things I’ve done. I’m not saying I’ve never told anybody – I have a couple of friends that I bounce ideas off of before I do something charitable at times. Also, businesses who donate to charitable causes make it public record because they have to be held accountable. But these are far different circumstances than puffing up your chest so the world knows what a kind and generous person you are. Christ knows – isn’t that good enough? He calls us to help others, not for bragging rights.

Many of those who are making these statements about prayer not working claim to be Christian themselves. I know only God can judge what’s in someone’s heart, but Christ is our direct line to God and I just can’t imagine believing in Christ but not prayer. I think most genuine Christians understand the value of prayer – even during times when we “fall away” and aren’t maintaining our prayer life as we should. Praying is one of the most selfless (yet ironically easiest) things we can do for one another. Easy because we can literally do it anywhere at any time, verbally or silent, eyes opened or closed, alone or with others. Selfless because it often involves praying for others who hate us or who would consider us their enemy. Selfless because we pray for nothing but good will for others, sometimes even at our own expense. Selfless because as easy as it is, humans are selfish by nature and it is still a struggle for many to take that time out of their day to remember to pray for others. I also look at it like this to try to help me keep on track praying for others: if I believe prayer works, what kind of monster would I be to not pray?

Those opposed to prayer are also assuming that they speak for the victims of these horrible events. As though the victims themselves do not want prayer. The naysayers might respond to that with the same notion towards us, that we are assuming the victims DO want prayer. To that, I would say that regardless of whether or not prayer works (it does), at the very least, it is harmless. But if prayer DOES work (again, it does), calling for people to stop praying could potentially be very harmful. Besides, one would be very hard pressed to find actual victims demanding that we stop praying for them.

Perhaps the biggest flaw, though, in the idea that “prayer isn’t enough” or “prayer doesn’t work” is that the only people saying this are the very people who don’t pray. Or the people who “pray” to a God they don’t believe in. God has no obligation to answer our prayers in the manner we want, especially if we don’t even believe He exists. It is impossible to genuinely and earnestly pray if we don’t genuinely and earnestly believe in God – and His power through prayer – in the first place.