"The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

How has your praying been lately? James tells us that our prayers have power.... The KJV says that the fervent prayer is effective. Are we fervent in our prayers? Look at Elijah....

"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit."

Let's get introspective for a minute here. The power behind prayer is from God alone, but we must first choose to pray. Elijah's choice to pray made the rain stop for 3 1/2 years. Would we even consider praying for such a thing today? America's Christians need a wake-up call in their prayer lives.

First, we must choose to pray. How often, when things go wrong or we lack direction, do we go to friends or even ourselves, rather than going immediately to God in prayer? Do we really believe that in our God we can find all wisdom and power? When things discourage us... when other people make seemingly bad decisions.... when situations are out of our control - we must stop and realize that our God is still in control, and pray to Him for whatever guidance, encouragement, and strength is needed. We must make a conscious decision to pray without ceasing.

Second, we must choose to pray correctly. Pray with faith, with boldness, and with confidence that God will fulfill His Word. Pray with fervency. How can we expect our prayers to effect any change if we don't have faith that they will make a difference? How can timidly asking for guidance compare to earnestly pleading with God to give wisdom and direction? That is the difference of how we usually pray with how we ought to pray.

Our prayers ought to be more than just repetitions of "Lord help me." We ought to pray for specifics. And we ought to keep praying for specifics until God either clearly shuts the door on our petition or leads us to continue on in faith. Read what we're commanded to do about that:

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."

My challenge to you all is to spend a week focusing on prayer. Spend the week praying for specific things and believing that God will do those things. If they are according to His will, He has promised to do them! We must simply ask and believe. Spend the week praying earnestly and fervently for those things. Pray not just for yourself, but for others. Allow that fervency to effect God's leading in other lives as well as your own. Write down what you're praying for, and keep track of how often you pray in faith for those things. Focus on your prayers - focus during your prayers. Don't get distracted. This is communication with our Father - what could be more important? And at the end of that week, realize all that the Father has done because you asked earnestly and with faith.


(James 5:16-18; Matthew 7:7-8)

There are no comments to this entry.