Is prayer a waste of time?

Silas Shotwell once told about Charles Francis Adams, a 19th century diplomat, who spent a day with his son and recorded it in his diary by saying, "Went fishing with my son today - a day wasted."

But his son, Brook Adams, wrote in his own diary, "Went fishing with my father - the most wonderful day of my life!"

How often do we pray and walk away thinking nothing much happened? How often do believers minimize prayer by considering it a mostly weak, wasted exercise?

And yet some of the world's most powerful events came through prayer:

• Abraham saved his family from being destroyed with Sodom - Genesis 18-19.
• Isaac rescued the chosen family line by praying for his barren wife - Genesis 25:21.
• Jacob escaped Esau's murderous wrath by prayer - Genesis 32:9-12 & 33:4.
• Israel prayed and Jehovah rescued them from Egypt - Exodus 2:23-25.
  
• Moses interceded and saved Israel from annihilation - Exodus 32:7-14.
• Hannah secured Israel's future by praying for, and bearing, a son named Samuel - 1 Samuel 1:9-20.
• Elijah stopped the rain for over three years and brought revival to idolatrous Israel by prayer - 1 Kings 17 & 18 (James 5:17-18).
• King Jehoshaphat called a prayer assembly and Jehovah saved Judah from being invaded by three nations - 2 Chronicles 20:1-30.
• Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead by prayer - John 11:41-44.
• Jesus prayed and the Holy Spirit came upon the church - John 14:16-17.
• Jesus protected His infant church by prayer - John 17.
• Jesus found strength to endure the cross by prayer - Luke 22:39-46.
  
• Jesus prayed His own resurrection into reality - Hebrews 5:7.
• The church's power on earth began in a prayer session - Acts 1:14 & 2:1-41.
  
• Prayer fills the supernatural realm, moving God's eternal plan forward - Romans 8:26 & 8:34; Revelation 6:9-10; 8:3-5.

"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain, night and day." -Alfred Lord Tennyson