Marilynn Chadwick is our contributor on Prayer. She has served with her husband, David, at Forest Hill Church in Charlotte, NC, for 30 years. She has a BA in Journalism and International Communication from the University of Georgia and a Masters in Human Development and Learning (MHDL) from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. She has also studied at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Marilynn founded Seeds of Hope in 2006 and is the co-founder and principle speaker of Women Under Construction at Forest Hill Church. She has worked in a Crisis Pregnancy Center and has participated in the William States Lee Institute of Leadership: Marketing leadership seminar series. She has also worked with various urban ministries and has had extensive overseas missions experience with travel on six continents and eleven countries in Africa. Marilynn is currently writing a book on prayer and will be a major contributor to our Seeds of Hope blog.
by Marilynn Chadwick
Any good journalist knows that to investigate a story, you need to ask these five questions: Who? What? When? Where? and How? When it comes to PRAYER, it is important to ask another question—Why? Why pray? Unless you really believe prayer works, you simply won’t pray. Life is too busy.
Jesus’ disciples saw him heal the sick, cast out demons and perform miracles. Yet the only time they asked Him to “teach” them how to do anything is when they said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:2).
My college major was Journalism. Plus, I have kept my own journals for nearly thirty years. I guess that truly makes me a “journal-ist.” I’ve seen God at work in some “world changing” ways in response to prayer. Like any good investigative reporter, I decided somewhere along the way to “mark the trail” I’ve been traveling.
The principles I’ve learned will not turn you into a master theologian, but they should help you begin to weave prayer into your daily life. If you are serious about learning how to pray, I believe you will see God at work—starting today. Not because prayer is magic, but because when you seek to learn how to pray, you are really seeking God. The Bible tells us that when coming to Him, we must “believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Think about the beautiful simplicity of this starting point with God: to believe that he is REAL and that he is a REWARDER of those who sincerely seek Him. We pray because it helps us to know God.
Another answer to the question “Why Pray?” is that we exert His influence in the world through prayer. God wants to use your prayer to help accomplish His purposes here on earth. Amazing, isn’t it? That should awe and inspire us to give prayer top priority! Pray like this, Jesus told His disciples. “Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Mat. 6:10).
What if you decided to pray for a country and its people—and what if you were one of the few on planet Earth who answered that call? Would you take “world changing” prayer more seriously? Think about it.
