In the beginning of Acts 12, before Luke recounts in detail the story of Peter’s release from prison, you will notice he starts by mentioning that Herod had just executed James. It seems that he is setting the two events in juxtaposition to one another, the only difference being prayer. What if the church had prayed for James as they had prayed for Peter? Is it possible that the story could have ended differently?

Does prayer really make a difference? Can we really alter the outcome of situations and circumstances through prayer? Someone once said that prayer doesn’t change things, it only changes the person praying, but this is contrary to Scripture. Prayer does change situations because God has made us partners with Him for the fulfillment of His purposes in the earth and prayer is one fundamental way in which we partner with God.

The prophet Elijah is a great example of this principle. For three years and six months Israel had been plagued by famine until God promised the prophet that He would send rain.

But at the end of the same chapter in which the promise was given, we see Elijah praying for the fulfillment of the promise. He cast himself down on the ground and put his face between his knees. Seven times he sent his servant to look for any sign of rain and in the meantime James 5:17 tells us that he “prayed earnestly”. One might wonder why Elijah needed to pray at all if God had already promised that He would send the answer. But Elijah understood that the promise required partnership through prayer. Oh, how many promises there are to the Child of God who will only take a hold of them earnestly through faith and prayer. Yes! Prayer does matter. It has the power to change the world.

We live in a physical world, where temporal material needs can often seem overwhelming and perpetual in our narrow view of reality. But in the grand scheme of eternity our problems are actually very small and insignificant. Consider this: if you looked out of the window of an airplane at 30,000 feet on a clear day you would see how even the largest, most imposing man-made structures on earth would be hardly visible much less impressive at that altitude. But actually, in terms of the universe, it would still be an incredibly close distance (only about 5.7 miles away).

Looking up at the stars on a clear night, it is mind-blowing to think that the closest one (after the sun) is 25 trillion miles from earth! While that sounds like a vast distance, completely impossible for our finite minds to comprehend; it is actually relatively close – slightly more than four light-years away. Compare that with other stars that are known to be more than 80,000 light-years away and there could be as many as 400 billion of them – just within our galaxy! If you feel small now, hold on to your hat! There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the observable universe, which spans tens of billions of light-years!

Just try for a moment to comprehend how small you are. When you look down at the earth from 30,000 feet, (not even a nanosecond compared to the light-years we use to measure the universe) human beings are not even visible – and now we are talking about billions of light-years! In the context of the universe, the earth itself is less than an infinitesimally microscopic speck of dust and we are the earth’s microbes.

But there’s more, because all the unfathomable vastness that makes up our universe exists in a tiny plane of time and space that we know as the physical world. Isaiah 57:15 says that God inhabits eternity; a realm of infinite scope in which our entire cosmos is only a drop of water in an endless ocean.

My friend, no matter how daunting your problem or need may seem right now, be assured that in reality, it is a small matter of very little true significance. Why should the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal God intervene in our affairs of such utter triviality? Because God uses our lives as a platform from which He desires to receive praise and glory. From the day we are born until the day we die, our lives exist for one reason – to glorify God.

Why do our problems matter? Because through them God can be glorified. It is easy to become self-centered in prayer focusing on our own needs and desires, but ultimately, even if we benefit from an answered prayer, it is not about us – it is all about Him! The philosophy of the age is the spirit of humanism, which teaches that the chief end of all being is the happiness of man. We are led to believe that this also applies to our relationship with God; that His chief goal and purpose is to make us happy, healthy, wealthy and comfortable. But Scripture teaches the opposite. Revelation 4:11 says that we were created for God’s pleasure! 1 Corinthians 6:20 says . . .

Take divine healing for example; every person who is supernaturally healed is still going to die one day, so someone might ask, “What is the point?” The real purpose is that God might receive praise as a result. For this reason, our problems do matter and have eternal significance; because God’s glory is a matter of eternal importance.

In John 9:2, the disciples asked Jesus about a man who was born blind, “saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’” and in verse 3 . . .

The disciples wanted to know if this situation was about the blind man or maybe his parents, but Jesus made it clear – it wasn’t about any of them. It was about bringing glory to God!

Scripture tells us about a few books that are in heaven. One is called “The Book of Life.” Another is called, “The Book of Remembrance.” There are also other books mentioned in Revelation 20:12. I think one of God’s books must be a picture album. In this book there are thousands of small snapshots of moments in human history. I think there is a picture Noah building the Ark. There is a picture of God making His covenant with Abraham. There is a picture of Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord. There is a picture of Moses leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt. There is a picture of Peter walking on the water. Perhaps there is a picture of something that happened in your life as well.

All these pictures are snapshots of moments in time when a man or a woman dared to trust God. They are moments when someone obeyed even when they didn’t understand. They are snapshots of moments when someone was faithful even unto death. They are snapshots of when God’s strength was made perfect through human weakness.

A hundred trillion years after this earth has been melted down and everything we know as “reality” has vanished forever; your best and worst moments, your struggles and victories, your pains and pleasures will seem like a faded dream. In that day, the only memorial of our world will be the snapshots in God’s picture album and every one will have the same caption, “Unto the Glory and Praise of God.”

These are the things that really matter. Our feelings, emotions, wants, desires and pleasures are ultimately meaningless compared to God’s eternal glory. This is why we pray. This is why we intercede. Not just so that our temporary lives can be enriched, but so that God’s enduring kingdom may be advanced. To God be the glory!

(Excerpt from “Unlocking the Miraculous” by Daniel Kolenda)