Superstitious people believe that the power of prayer lies in the magical text itself. A set of words uttered during certain gestures, and even better - in combination with icons, amulets, talismans and fingering rosaries, can lead to a miraculous recovery, a happy outcome or a way out of a difficult situation. Such people believe that this is a kind of spell, as in the Old Man Khotabych "fuck-tibidah-tibidokh." Then it turns out that everyone can pronounce ritual words - a true 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 a religious feeling remain empty words. Only the power of faith makes them effective. Prayer is only an oral expression of aspirations for God. Remember the episode from the Gospel when a sick woman, seeing Jesus Christ surrounded by a crowd, thinks: “As soon as I touch the edge of His garment, I will be healed right away.” This happened, although she did not pronounce any magic formulas. The Lord told her, "Your faith has saved you." Note: not prayer, not an appendix to clothing (the Shroud, icons, bones in crayfish, 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 manifestation of aspiration for God, an appeal to Him. What help can He ask in this world? About body recovery? This problem should be addressed to doctors. About a happy outcome? We ourselves can influence its result. Heavenly Father does not affect what is happening 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 us see in which cases the power of prayer is revealed in the Scriptures. Here Peter, seeing Jesus walking on the water, says: "Tell me to come to you." The Lord says, “Go.” Peter leaves the boat and goes to Christ (his soul rushes to God) through the water (through the shaky abyss of this world). But since a strong wind blows, surging waves (earthly passions), Peter was frightened (yielded to temptation), fell into the water and began to sink (began to lose faith). Then he shouted: "Lord, save me!"
And in this short cry all the power of prayer was revealed. Christ came up, offered his hand to him and said: "Why did you doubt, unbelieving?" Thus, an appeal to God is a request to strengthen our spirit, to free us from fear of the hardships and passions of this world, to strengthen our faith if it fades away. But a religious appeal also reveals our desire to come to God, demonstrates our striving for Good and our aspiration to break out of the path of evil, to be cleansed of sins, illnesses of the soul. We exclaim after the father of a 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 near to me, and I will draw near to you." The power of the prayer “Our Father” 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, they gave it a special ritual to those entering the “Servants of God”.