Prof. John Tyndall, a British scientist, maintained that prayer is of no value. More than that: He proposed a test to challenge God and those who believe in Him.

“Go into a hospital ward,” he said, “and divide the patients into two equal groups. Make sure that they have similar illnesses and that they receive the same medical attention, but let Christian people pray for one group and neglect the other. Then we shall see if any improvement is shown in the patients prayed for.”

Such challenges are of no value, and even dangerous, for the following reasons:

God is not to be challenged. Presumption with reference to the Divinity is a dangerous attitude.

Christ said: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Luke 4:12).

The apostle Paul wrote: “Be not deceived: God is not mocked.”

The Lord is not to be approached with man-made tests. When the Jews challenged Christ: “Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him”), He ignored their insolent defiance, because they were not honest in their demand, since they had closed their eyes to greater miracles than the one they now wanted to see.

Hopeless scoffers may be destroyed if they go too far in their defiance of God’s mercy.

At the turn of the century, while H.F. Graff, a minister of the gospel, was traveling in one of the southern states of Brazil, he was caught by a heavy rain and sought refuge in a tavern. The men in the pub noticed that the stranger was a missionary; and they began to scoff at God and at Christianity. So the pastor rebuked them politely, but they would not listen. Then one of those fellows, who was pitiably drunk, held out his pipe and uttered a challenge in a mocking tone: “If there is a God in heaven, He must be able to light this pipe.” While he was still holding out his hand for a bet, the irreverent man was suddenly struck down by a flash of a lightning, and there he lay dead before he could blurt out one more word of blasphemy.

The question, “Does God answer prayer?,” is often heard in our days. We, human beings, should beware of challenging the Almighty for an answer. We should, instead, accept His challenge as all-sufficient to settle the question.

“Ye shall seek Me and find Me,” says the Lord, “When ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

“O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).

When, through presumption, we dare to put God to the test, one of three things may happen:

In most cases He ignores our audacity and gives us another chance to repent and come to our senses. On the other hand, however, the Lord may punish our effrontery if we tempt Him despite our knowledge or because of our neglect to obtain the needed knowledge. (See example in 2 Kings 1:9-15). Nevertheless, in some cases God may answer by granting our request in view of our honest ignorance. (See example in 2 Kings 20:8, 10). It should be borne in mind, also, that sometimes God sends right answers to wrong prayers.

Here is an experience which shows how God often speaks to skeptics and atheists. In northeastern Brazil an atheist stood at a country crossroad close to an unpredictable bull. “God,” he shouted, “if you exist, I challenge You to make this bull charge at me.” Maybe that man was a bullfighter. The bull ignored him and kept on grazing. Then the atheist noticed that a rolled-up piece of paper, driven by the wind, was coming toward him. Out of curiosity he picked it up and read, “GOD IS LOVE.” He could not get these words out of his mind, and became convinced that a merciful God was speaking to him. He began to read the Bible and in due time he was converted and became a consistent Christian.

Belief in God is more than an opinion; it is a firm conviction based on evidence and personal experience. We often see the manifestation of the hand of God in behalf of His servants.

Therefore, not atheists, but faithful Christian believers, are qualified to say whether or not God answers prayer.

Answers to prayer in our days are becoming rare, because men do not meet the conditions: Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 1:4, 15; 59:1, 2; James 1:6, 7; 4:3.

A drunkard said to me: I have prayed to all the saints in the world and received no help at all.

If a gambler prays that God may help him to win, of course he will get no help from God.

I have heard of a burglar, in jail, who prayed that God would bless the prospective burglaries that he was planning to carry out as soon as he should be free.

Such prayers are an abomination to God.

The conditions on which the Lord promised to answer our prayers should be carefully heeded: Isaiah 58:6-9; Mark 11:24: Luke 18:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; James 5:14-16; 1 John 3:22; 5:14.

One day Dr. Charles L. Allen put the following question into his newspaper column: “Have you had an answer to prayer?” And he received more positive replies than he expected. “In fact,” he says, “It took me about a week to read them all.”

Of course, every rule has its exceptions. Dr. Allen says that some tried to belittle prayer, claiming that the so-called answers are but coincidences. There is evidently half a truth in this statement. Many but not all answers are coincidences. But educated, intelligent, and honest Christians insist that some answers cannot be coincidences, and we should not presume to deny their ability to make distinctions. On top of that, we should understand that no one is qualified to judge someone else’s experience.

Those who think that prayer makes no difference in a person’s life and that there is no such thing as direct answers to prayer should read the books of Dr. Leslie D. Weatherhead (Psychology, Religion, and Healing) and of Dr. Archiblad J. Cronin (The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom, etc.). Also the books about the work of George Mueller in England are full of evidence that God does answer prayer. And what to say about the evidence brought forth by Dr. Roger Pilkington? In one of his books he tells an interesting story:

Dr. Pilkington arrived in one of the cities of South Wales to give a series of lectures to a group of post-graduate biology students. For some reason his hotel reservations were changed contrary to his expectations. At the other hotel, where he did not expect to be put up, the receptionist, a tired-looking middle-aged lady, was discussing with two gentlemen the subject of suicide. And she asked Dr. Pilkington how many aspirin tablets would be needed to kill a person. Then they changed the conversation to other subjects until Dr. Pilkington retired for the night.

When already in bed, a strange feeling, an inner voice, prevented him from falling asleep. He was impressed with the thought that that lady wanted to commit suicide. He ran downstairs and confronted her with the question: “I want to know why you are going to commit suicide.” As she began to deny her intention, Dr. Pilkington cut her short: “I shall not stop you. But you must tell me why you are going to kill yourself.” Then the lady broke down and told him her problem.

When her father turned forty-three, he became totally blind. And her doctor said that she would also become blind at approximately the same age. It was a hereditary condition. So, as she was now approaching her forty-third birthday, and was not prepared to spend the rest of her life as a helpless blind spinster, she had decided to leave the land of the living.

Dr. Pilkington, geneticist, had been studying the subject of hereditary faults of vision. He was an authority in this field. And as the lady described her father’s condition, Dr. Pilkington assured her that it was not hereditary. She told him that she had been praying every day: “Please Lord, show me how I can commit suicide.” But now she changed her mind and, feeling relieved, she said to the doctor: “You can go back to bed. I shall not kill myself.”

Many times even wrong prayers get right answers from God. The scientist was convinced that the hand of God had led him to help that lady through a number of intelligently-oriented and purposeful circumstances, called providences.

“The best answer to all objections urged against prayer,” says an American author, “is the fact that man cannot help praying.”

It is as natural for man to pray as it is for migratory birds to fly to their summer homes, or as for hummingbirds to stick their long tongue deep into flowers to suck in nectar, or as for newborn mammals to rush for the mother’s milk. By instinct, these creatures seek something that exists. And man, by prayer, also seeks supplies at an existent Fountain of blessings. This is why people of all walks of life - statesmen, doctors, scientists, and, sometimes, even professed atheists - kneel down before the throne of grace.