Rethinking Prayer #3: What Makes Prayer “Effective”

If you have been a Christian long enough, you have heard the word revival. It's a word many use, but the meaning is often unclear. In general, "revivals" are times of unusual blessing in the church—times when the Holy Spirit seems to be working in special and more intense ways. I don't think any Christian has a problem with revival itself, but revivalist movements can be problematic in many ways. Today, I want to focus on how they've shaped how many see prayer.

The revivalist mindset is: study past revivals, find patterns, and figure out how to "bring the revival down." People in these movements wouldn't phrase it that way, but there's an underlying belief that if we just "press in" hard enough or long enough in prayer, God will respond. This mindset has shaped how churches view corporate prayer and how individual Christians see their prayer lives.

Many now think their prayers aren't effective unless they see God work in immediate and dramatic ways. They begin to distrust God's providence—His regular, slower, faithful ways of working. Miracles and breakthroughs become the goal, and we lose patience for slow, generational fruit.

But biblically, prayer that is effective is not insistent or dramatic, but righteous and persistent (James 5:16, Luke 18:1). It's not forceful and demanding, but humble and steady. It's not a way to manipulate the divine—that's closer to witchcraft than Christianity. It's an act of faith resting in God's good plans. True prayer doesn't come from anxiety and uncertainty but from trust in God's promises (James 1:6–8).

Prayer is also intelligent. It's not a pagan ritual meant to awaken a distant god. We serve a God of infinite goodness, knowledge, intelligence and wisdom. We pray as sons and daughters speaking to a gracious Father—thoughtfully, trustingly, and intimately.

Nino Marques