Prayer and Protest

Why and how we pray when it doesn't feel like enough.

Feb 09, 2026

Public Theology is based on the work of Zach W. Lambert, Pastor of Restore, an inclusive church in Austin, Texas. He and his wife, Amy Lambert, contribute to and moderate this account. Zach’s first book, Better Ways to Read the Bible, is now available wherever books are sold.

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Almost fifteen years ago, my mom called, voice shaking, to tell me that my dad had been in a car accident. He had been removed from his car by the “jaws of life” and was taken to the nearest hospital where he underwent surgery. Things were not looking good. He was put in the ICU and someone started a prayer chain via email— people were praying for my dad all around the country. He eventually pulled through and I remember someone saying, “That’s the power of prayer!”

At the time, I worked for one of the largest churches in America. Even though I had grown up in Evangelical churches and had been around prayer my entire life, that comment— “That’s the power of prayer!”— hit me differently after my dad’s accident and recovery. I couldn’t stop thinking about prayer, wondering how it works and how God works through it.

Did God only save my Dad because people were praying for him? If only 100 people had prayed instead of 1000, would God have let him die?

It’s important to note that I was not looking for reasons to question God or doubt the power of prayer at this point in my life. In fact, I was doing everything I could to stuff down all my questions and swallow all my doubts, but this one wouldn’t go away. No matter how hard I tried to push past these questions, I simply couldn’t. I began to realize that a god who would only save my Dad’s life if enough people prayed was not a god I wanted anything to do with. A god who responds to prayer chains with thousands of people on them but ignores the still, small prayers of individuals who so desperately need his help because they are praying alone was not a god I could place my faith in.

Many of us grew up in Christian cultures where we were handed a big checklist of things to do:

Pray every morning, every night, and before every meal
Practice a quiet time of studying the Bible at least once a day— nighttime is acceptable, but real Christians wake up early and do it in the morning
Go to church every Sunday (and Wednesday nights if you’re really serious about your faith)
Go on a mission trip every year
Tithe 10%
And on and on

We were told that we had to do all of these things, but most of us weren’t told why these disciplines were so important beyond explanations like, “Because this is what God wants. It’s what good Christians do.”

So what is the point of these practices? Many of us have asked this question after rethinking faith. The point of spiritual disciplines, like prayer, is Christlikeness—to live and love like Jesus. It’s to experience the grace, hope, and joy he offers to us and all humanity, and to help make God’s Kingdom a reality on earth as it is in heaven.

I don’t know about y’all, but there have been many times in my life where I’ve diligently performed these practices and there was absolutely nothing Christlike about them. This has been true of me and true of other I’ve observed over the years.

We can pray before every meal and still ignore those we don’t want at our tables
We can read our Bibles every morning and somehow miss the messages of service, love, and inclusion for absolutely everyone
We can focus on the parts of scripture we like while dismissing the rest
We can care deeply about how others view us while mistreating those closest to us

But our practices are pointless if our posture isn’t Christlike. Our practices are pointless if they don’t produce Christlike fruit in our lives and within our communities.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Galatians 5:22-23

If our practices aren’t producing more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in us and in the world around us, then the Spirit of Christ isn’t in those practices. They are empty rituals.

To bring it all back to where we started, this became my problem with prayer. I had tried to practice it, to read about it, to understand it, but nothing helped. No good fruit came out of it. And pretty soon, a medical crisis for my dad turned into a full blown faith crisis for me. This was the beginning of my journey toward figuring out what prayer really is, why it matters, and how to practice it.

I’m convinced that there is no “correct” understanding of prayer, but I’ve seen that there are harmful understandings that actually lead us away from Jesus and Christlike fruit. I don’t have everything figured out, but I want to share with you what I’ve learned about the purpose and practice of prayer. Let’s look at the book of Ephesians.

What we now call the “book of Ephesians” is actually a letter written by a persecutor of Christians turned pastor named Paul. He helped start churches all over the Near East in the first century and would often write letters back to the church leaders to address issues they were having.

Ephesians is a little different from many of Paul’s other letters in that it is his broadest letter of instruction— it wasn’t written to one church but a bunch of churches all over Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. In fact, most of the earliest manuscripts of the letter include a blank spot in which each individual church would fill in their name or city.

The first fourteen verses of Chapter 1 are Paul’s explanation of what it means to be a Christian. He shares:

that we have been adopted into the family of God
that we have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ
that we have been forgiven and redeemed
and that we have all been given the Holy Spirit

In verse fifteen, Paul transitions and shares how he prays for his siblings in Christ. If you stop and think about the world in which these first century Christians were living, it’s not hard to think of prayer requests for them:

A better government would be a nice start. Nero was the Emperor of the Roman world at the time and is one of the most notorious persecutors of Christians in the history of the world. For example: Nero used to light Christians on fire and use them as torches at his night time parties. These first century Christians would have been living in deep fear of Nero and the Romans, so praying for a change of government would have been an appropriate request.
We would assume another of Paul’s prayer requests would be for healing from diseases. Plagues and other incurable ailments were a daily battle in the first century.
Many early Christians were living in poverty, so we can assume that Paul often prayed for food, water, and shelter for the Christians around him.

All of these things seem like obvious choices for Paul’s prayer requests, but he doesn’t mention any of them here. In fact, in all of Paul’s recorded prayers for his siblings in Christ, there is not one single appeal for their circumstances to change. Not one time. All of the requests we’d have at the top of our list aren’t even mentioned by Paul as he prays for his friends.

Does this mean that it is wrong or sinful to pray for these things? Certainly not. Jesus prayed for a change of circumstances in the Garden of Gethsemane and he is our ultimate model. But it does mean that Paul didn’t consider a request for change of circumstance as important as the requests he presented to God in all of his writings. I believe what Paul prays for here helps us have a better understanding of what prayer is and why God gave it to us.

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.
Ephesians 1:15-16

Paul hasn’t stopped praying for these folks since the first time he heard about them. So if he hasn’t been praying for their circumstances to change, what has he been praying for? Paul identifies two things.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
Ephesians 1:17

Here is prayer request #1 from Paul: He prays that his siblings in Christ would “know Jesus better.” This word translated “know” here is so much more than intellectual comprehension. It means experiential understanding. One of my favorite Biblical Concordances defines it as “contact knowledge”— this is first-hand, lived experience.

To put it another way, Paul’s first prayer request isn’t that they would know about Jesus. It’s that they would experience the depth of Jesus’ loving presence.

Why? Because Paul knows that a circumstance change would only be temporary. He knows, just like every single one of us, that life is a roller-coaster ride, full of ups and downs. Paul knows that the best way to navigate the ever-changing circumstances of life is to rest deeply in Jesus and his perfect love for us.

Paul wants these first century Christians, and I believe us by extension, not to be defined by everything around them, but instead by who Jesus says we are: God’s beloved, image-bearing children. Every single one of us.

So Paul doesn’t pray for their circumstances to change, he prays that they would become more dependent on Jesus no matter what their circumstances are. That’s request #1.

Here’s request #2:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…
Ephesians 1:18

Paul has two prayer requests that he just keeps praying over and over again for his siblings in Christ. He wants them to “know Jesus better” and “know Jesus’ hope.”

So what is this hope that comes from Jesus?

…the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:19-21

Simply put, this hope is the Kingdom of God. It’s in this place, God’s Kingdom, this beloved community where people receive:

the glorious inheritance that Jesus offers
the resurrection and life that Jesus freely gives
and the deliverance from the sin, pain, and death that Jesus provides

Jesus talked a lot about this “Kingdom of God” during his time on earth— he actually talked about it more than anything else. Jesus taught and demonstrated that God’s Kingdom is a place where:

the sick are healed
the hungry are fed
the poor are blessed
the oppressed are set free
the marginalized are lifted up
and all are invited in

A place where:

sins are forgiven
death is conquered
evil is vanquished
and all things are made new

Paul doesn’t pray for his brothers and sisters to have new circumstances, he prays that they would experience the love of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. And he teaches them how to do both of these things—how to live in the love of Jesus and how to help all people experience the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven.

But there’s more.

Paul knows that prayer isn’t just holding hands to bless a meal or kneeling down beside your bed to thank God for helping you get through one more day. Prayer takes many forms.

When we raise our voices and sing together, that’s prayer.

When we reach out our hands and serve together, that’s prayer.

When we stretch out our legs and march together, that’s prayer.

There is a famous story about a Rabbi named Abraham Joshua Heschel who marched alongside John Lewis, Amelia Boynton, and Dr. King at Selma in 1965. After he came home, Heschel was asked by a friend if they could pray before the march. Heschel replied:

“For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling, and yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

This, my friends, is the work of the church. We pray with our words and we pray with our feet. Listen to how Paul describes it as he finishes this chapter.

God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
Ephesians 1:22-23

We are the body of Christ. We are his hands and feet here on earth. He is working in us and through us to share his love and accomplish his Kingdom purposes.

All of this has informed my understanding and practice of prayer. This doesn’t mean that I don’t pray petitionary prayers on behalf of myself and others. It doesn’t mean that I don’t pray and meditate alone with God. And it doesn’t mean that I don’t offer to put my arm around someone who is struggling and pray for them. All of these are beautiful and valid forms of prayers.

But it does mean that my goal for prayer has completely shifted from making genie-like requests of a far-away-feeling-god to asking for help for myself and others to experience the love of Jesus and the Kingdom of God— that upside down Kingdom where the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

I’m not going to pretend to know why some of our petitionary prayers get answered and others do not— I’m not sure that I’ll ever know that. I feel confident in saying, though, that the outcome of our prayers has absolutely nothing to do with how many people are on the prayer chain, how fervently they’re praying, or the holiness of the folks doing the praying. I feel confident in saying this because of Jesus.

I mentioned earlier that there is nothing wrong with asking God for help or for a change in circumstance, and here’s why: we know this because Jesus did so in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He [Jesus] withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…”
Luke 22:41-42

What happened after this prayer? Did the Father remove the cup from Jesus? Did he avoid death on the cross?

No. Just moments later, Jesus was illegally arrested and he would go on to be unjustly tried, brutally beaten, and mercilessly executed. C.S. Lewis reflected on this moment by saying:

“There are, no doubt, passages in the New Testament which may seem at first sight to promise an invariable granting of our prayers. But that cannot be what they really mean. For in the very heart of the story we meet a glaring instance to the contrary. In Gethsemane the holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him. It did not.”
C.S. Lewis

When I said earlier that harmful understandings about prayer hurt us and lead us away from the heart of God, this is what I meant. If you’ve been told that God isn’t answering your prayer because you aren’t holy enough or praying hard enough or enlisting enough people to pray with you, I want you to know that it was a lie. Maybe a well-intentioned lie, but a lie just the same.

The truth is that God’s desire is for all of humanity to experience love, liberation, and fullness of life. No matter who they are. No matter what they believe. And prayer is just one of the practices God has provided to us for that purpose.

Any form of prayer which leads toward this purpose is helpful. Sometimes that looks like quiet, solitary meditation. Other times it looks like putting our feet to the pavement to work toward the liberation of every human created in God’s image. And it may look like asking God to lead you to those who are most vulnerable in your community then meeting their needs: physical, emotional, and social.

This is why we pray. This is how God uses us to meet the needs of those around us while working in us for our best. The methods may differ, but the purpose of the same: Love God and love your neighbor. That’s what it’s all about.

Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence. When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever!

Amen.

Ephesians 3:12-21

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