What Good is Prayer?

By J. Michael Sharman, 01 May, 2006

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J. Michael Sharman

The United States Congress has declared that every year there shall be a National Day of Prayer. This year the President and all fifty governors will issue proclamations calling people to prayer on the first Thursday of May. At state capitols, county courthouses, and city parks all across the nation -- north and south, east and west, in the cities and out in the small towns, on the coasts and in the heartland -- citizens will be gathering at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />noon to publicly pray.
Why all the fuss and bother? What good is prayer?
We know the Bible frequently mentions that Jesus Christ prayed: in crowds, with His disciples, by Himself, in the morning, at night He prayed and He prayed a lot.
Prayer may have worked back then for the Son of God Himself, but what about us mere mortals? What good is prayer for us?
When the Virginia Company sent out three ships of colonists to establish a settlement on the shores of the New World, they sent with them instructions which concluded, "Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God the Giver of all Goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out."
They weren't just spouting pious talk. Up until that time, every British attempt at colonization had indeed been rooted out, and some, like Raleigh's famous Lost Colony, just simply vanished.
Those Virginia Company ships landed first at Cape Henry near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. The Park Service's Historical Marker at that spot says the colonists' first act was to erect a large wooden cross (which they suggest might have been pre-made for the occasion in England out of English oak), receive holy communion, and have a prayer meeting conducted by their minister, the Reverend Robert Hunt.
There was much, much suffering and difficulty in the Jamestown colony after that day of prayer, but contrary to the pessimistic expectations of many, the colony succeeded and bore fruit when it did not seem humanly possible to do so.
Of course, it could just be coincidence that finally one colonization attempt managed to hang on. What good is prayer nationally? Why have a National Day of Prayer?
A dozen years after those colonists landed at Cape Henry, they began the first American legislature, Virginia's House of Burgesses, in July of 1619. The events of that inaugural day were written down by House Speaker John Pory, "But for as much as men's affairs do little prosper where God's service is neglected, all the Burgesses took their places in the Choir till a prayer was said by Mr. Bucke, the minister, that it would please God to guide and sanctify all our proceedings to His own glory and the good of this Plantation."
Not only did representative democracy begin that day, but Rev. Bucke's prayer marked the beginning of the oldest continuously operating legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, now known as the Virginia General Assembly.
A century and half later, when the colonies collectively decided to separate themselves politically from England, the first act of their first Congress was to pass a Resolution requesting the Reverend Duche to open the first congressional meeting with prayer. He prayed, "Be thou present, O God of Wisdom, and direct the councils of this Honorable Assembly: enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundations, andshower down on them and the millions they represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting Glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ Thy Son and Our Savior."
It is difficult to ignore the positive results from that prayer. The United States Constitution is the oldest governing document in the world. Our foundation was securely made. We are prosperous. We are healthy. The land is fruitful and beautiful. The people are free. There simply is no other nation on earth or in history which has been as incredibly and widely blessed as we have been.
What good is prayer?
Join your neighbors at the courthouse or State Capitol steps on this first Thursday in May and link your prayers with theirs to help create even more proof that prayer really does work miracles.

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