Superstitious people believe that the power of prayer lies in the magical text itself. A set of words uttered while performing certain gestures, and even better - in combination with icons, amulets, talismans and sorting out the rosary, can lead to a miraculous recovery, a happy outcome of a case or a way out of a difficult situation. Such people believe that this is a kind of spell, like Old Man Hotabych's "fuck-tibidah-tibidoh." Then it turns out that everyone can pronounce ritual words - a devout believer, a doubter, even an atheist, and the result will be the same: it will work.
However, most religions claim that ritual phrases uttered without religious feeling remain empty words. It is only the power of faith that makes them effective. Prayer is only a verbal expression of aspirations to God. Remember the episode from the Gospel when a sick woman, seeing Jesus Christ surrounded bycrowd, he thinks: “I have only to touch the edge of His garments, and I will immediately be healed.” And so it happened, although she did not utter any magic formulas. The Lord told her, "Your faith has saved you." Note: not a prayer, not an attachment to clothing (the Shroud, icons, bones in shrines, not a pilgrimage to the Pochaev Lavra), but faith.
Why do we say "the power of prayer"? In the mouth of a believer, it is a revelation of aspiration to God, an appeal to Him. What help can you ask Him for in this world? About the recovery of the body? With this problem, you need to contact the doctors. About a happy ending? We ourselves can influence its outcome. The Heavenly Father does not influence what happens in this world, the world of dead things. And this is indicated many times in the New Testament: the Kingdom of God is not of this world. His kingdom is the spiritual world, where He works miracles.
Let's see how the Scriptures show the power of prayer. Here Peter, seeing Jesus walking on the water, says: "Command me to come to you." The Lord says, "Go." Peter gets out of the boat and goes to Christ (his soul rushes to God) on the water (along the unsteady abyss of this world). But since a strong wind is blowing, raising waves (earthly passions), Peter was frightened (succumbed to temptation), fell into the water and began to drown (began to lose faith). Then he shouted: "Lord, save me!".
And in this short exclamation, the whole power of prayer was revealed. Christ came up, gave him his hand and said: “Why did you doubt, little faith?”. SoThus, an appeal to God is a request to strengthen our spirit, to free us from the fear of the hardships and passions of this world, to strengthen our faith if it is fading. But a religious appeal also reveals our desire to come to God, demonstrates our striving for the Good and our aspiration to break free from the fetters of evil, cleanse ourselves from sins, illnesses of the soul. We exclaim after the father of the demon-possessed youth: “Lord! Help my unbelief” (Mark 9:23, 24).
But in order for our words to be heard, we must try to live according to the commandments of God, as it is said: "Draw close to Me, and I will draw close to you." The power of the Our Father prayer is manifested only in the mouth of one who is truly worthy to call God his Heavenly Father, who strictly follows the commandments given by Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore, in the early Christian tradition, ordinary believers could not say the Lord's Prayer, it was bestowed by a special ritual on entering the "Servants of God."
