Dr Paul Allen

When I was in Bible college, I was told stories of a former professor that used to go around with a notebook in his pocket. He didn’t carry this notebook to keep track of student’s grades, or for his schedule, no. He would use this notebook so that when he went around and spoke with his students or others on campus, he could take down their prayer requests. It was his prayer notebook. He would regularly insert new prayer requests into his notebook, but he didn’t stop there. He would spend devoted time praying for each of these students’ requests. Then, he intentionally would follow up with the students to let them know that he had not forgotten their prayer request and that he continued to bring it before the Lord.  He would also ask if and how God had answered the prayer request. If the prayer was answered, he would praise the Lord. If the prayer had been answered by the Lord, not yet, or seemingly not in a clear fashion at that time, he would still praise the all-wise God and con...

We have to guard against taking a fatalistic view of prayer. We cannot allow ourselves to dismiss prayer from our lives simply because it might not seem to have pragmatic value. Whether or not prayer works, we must engage in it, simply because God Himself commands us to do it. Even a cursory reading of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, reveals a deep emphasis on prayer, supplication, and intercession. It is inescapable that prayer is an expected activity for the people of God. Furthermore, our Lord Himself is the supreme model for us in all things, and He clearly made prayer a huge priority in His life. We can do no less. Whether or not prayer works, we must engage in it, simply because God Himself commands us to do it. But it is also true that Scripture teaches us that prayer does "work" in some sense. Let me cite three examples. We all know that the apostle Peter boldly declared that he would never betray Jesus, that he was ready to go to prison and eve...