DAY 1: What Difference Does Prayer Make?

Today marks the beginning of the largest 40 Days For Life spring campaign ever!  Thousands of people in 588 cities worldwide will be praying, including you!  

But what do we hope to accomplish?  Abortion is such an enormous problem, what difference can our prayers make?

Just listen to Abby Johnson – a former Clinic Director at Planned Parenthood:

“Are my prayers really working?”  I hear these questions from those who stand and pray outside abortion facilities, and all I can do is smile and say, “Yes, your efforts make a difference.”

They made a difference in my life.  I watched from inside the Planned Parenthood abortion center I managed while the first-ever 40 Days for Life Campaign took place.  “What are they doing?” I wondered, “Do they really think this is going to work?”  I asked myself those questions every day for forty days.

A few years later, they were still doing the same thing, but now as part of a nationwide movement.  And then again.  And again.  Was it working?  Yes.  Clients were walking away from our Planned Parenthood facility and accepting information about alternatives from volunteers.  I couldn’t stop thinking about the 40 Days volunteers in front of our facility who, every day, told me they were praying for me.  That, too, was working, although I didn’t realize it yet.

Five years after the first 40 Days for Life Campaign started, I found myself convicted to leave my job.  It had taken eight years of prayer and outreach to me, a Planned Parenthood regional employee of the year.”

In the end, Abby did leave Planned Parenthood and became a follower of Christ.  Now she is one of the leading Pro-Life voices in America!  

So how will our prayers make a difference?  One person at a time… one life at a time… just like with Abby Johnson.

James 5:16 says: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

Do you believe that?  Do you believe God will actually answer your prayers in the next 40 days, and as a consequence someone’s life will be changed?  Perhaps someone’s life will be saved!  

The prayers of God’s people are powerful and effective! So let’s commit this 40-Day campaign to the Lord… and let’s start praying!

Suggested things to pray for:

• Ask God to search, cleanse and prepare your heart for the next 40 days (Ps 139:23-24).
• Ask God to strengthen and increase your faith so he can use you mightily (Lk 17:5; Mk 9:24).
• Praise God for what he’s going to do in advance (Eph 2:10).