You can change your life in a minute. Yep, 60 seconds of connecting with the creator of the universe can completely transform the way you connect with people, your motivation, and your ideals. That’s how powerful talking with God is, whether it’s expressing your love for Him, asking for favour, or pleading for forgiveness.
You might be stressed out of your mind. You could be experiencing depression. Maybe you’re under extreme financial pressure. With prayer, you can find hope in the darkest of times, and hope is an incredibly powerful motivator.
Burdens and Prayer
It’s important to turn to God for relief from emotional burdens. 1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” When faced with overwhelming emotions or difficult situations, prayer can act as a coping mechanism, offering a sense of comfort and solace.
Philippians 4:6–7 reads “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Turning to God in prayer is vital to turning your life around, as he hears every prayer (1 John 5:14–15: “If we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”)
How can prayer change your Life?
Depending on your individual beliefs, motivations, and practices, prayer can serve as the medium through which you change your life.
Changing your heart
Through reflecting in prayer, you can collaborate with God to understand your thoughts and emotions, then understand what’s in your heart and make positive changes. Exploring your purpose and inner ongoings can lead to discovering a deeper meaning in your life. This sense of purpose can guide your actions and decisions, bringing more fulfilment and direction.
Also, praying for others, regardless of your own struggles, cultivates empathy and understanding, breaking down walls of isolation and connecting you to a larger community; “love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (from John 13:34–35) Praying for others and practising compassion can positively impact your interpersonal relationships. It can encourage forgiveness, understanding, and stronger bonds with loved ones and communities. This creates more room in your heart for those you love. Romans 12: 12 states: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Prayer can inspire perseverance and courage in difficult times, as focusing on God and his love for you creates hope to help you battle tough times.
Changing your mind
A study from the University of Mississippi Medical Center by Boelens et al. found that person-to-person prayer for depression and anxiety created significant and long-lasting effects on 44 womens’ mental health.
The study consisted of six weekly 1-hour prayer sessions conducted in an office setting. It involved a one-year follow-up of subjects with depression and anxiety who had undergone prayer intervention. To assess results, subjects completed the Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression and Anxiety, Life Orientation Test, and Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale after finishing the series of prayer sessions.
The doctors’ findings were astounding. They found significant improvements in several domains of mental health, including reduced depression and anxiety, increased optimism, and greater levels of spiritual experience. They refer to changing your brain through prayer as “self-directed neuroplasticity”– that’s changing the structure of your brain and its chemistry through your beliefs.
The study concludes: “With the effects of these prayers maintained over time, it is possible that permanent structural changes in the brain may have been induced. Direct person-to-person prayer may provide a modality of treatment, in addition to antidepressants for patients with mild to moderate depression.” How awesome is that? Prayer can quite literally change your brain.
We can interpret this study as evidence that prayer can positively impact your psychology, improving motivation to make positive decisions, and directly changing your life.
Praying is an indispensable tool when it comes to creating long-lasting life changes.
How to use prayer to transform your life
We now know that you can change your heart and the structure of your brain through prayer. But how does praying work?
There isn’t a set way to pray, but here are a few pointers.
- Close your eyes. You don’t have to, but it helps with blocking out distractions. It also helps to pray in a quiet place.
- Open your heart, however you make sense of that.
- Pray. You can do this silently or out loud.
Topics you can talk to God about
- Gratitude. You can give thanks for the good things, big or small, in your life.
- Try asking God to help someone else. This is called intercession.
- You can tell God about what’s going on in your life as if talking to a friend.
- Ask for things you need. This is called petition.
What to expect from prayer
You probably won’t get exactly what you asked for right away–that’s just not how it works. God works within his own divine timing. He says “For everything there is a season, and a time for every activity under heaven,” in Ecclesiastes 3:1.
Instead, you might gain more intangible gifts from the Lord, like inner peace, compassion, less stress, or a new perspective–things we could all use now and then.
If you would like someone to pray for you–really, genuinely pray for you, get in touch with Need Prayer. You can get in touch with us through a call, chat, or by submitting a prayer request form. When you reach out to Need Prayer, someone will be waiting on the other end to actively listen and sincerely pray with you.