Do Americans Believe God Answers Prayers?

Sam Rainer

Yes. Overwhelmingly so. The vast majority of Americans (92%) believe there is a God, and 83% of Americans say God answers prayers. Despite the positivity surrounding prayer, only 57% of adults favor a National Day of Prayer while 38% are ambivalent.

I doubt a large segment Americans are praying to the God of the Bible, but too often I do not pray as if I am talking to the Creator of the universe. If I’m not careful, my personal prayer life can become routine and dull. And it’s far too easy to write off our prayer life, blaming it on a lack of time. I hear of prayer warriors spending two-hours a day in prayer, and my initial reaction is “how do they find the time?” But then I realize that I spend 3 hours a week with yard work and 1-2 hours a day working out.

It’s easy to justify selfish time.

Where did the time go? It was spent on me. My prayer time/selfish time ratio is quite poor.

But the Lord delights in the prayer of the upright. The Lord of the universe actually listens to us. And we are to be persistent in prayer. We are to pray constantly. One of Satan’s greatest tools is time. He tells us that we have plenty of time to get back on track, no need to hurry. And he uses our own selfish endeavors to lead us to believe that there is no time to pray.

Tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. We’ll observe it at FBC Murray by praying around the court square at lunch. Even if your church does not have formal activities planned, use tomorrow as a way to improve your spiritual discipline of prayer.

God wants to hear from us. He wants to speak to us. It’s time we pray like that’s true.