Prayer
You cannot be alive in the Lord without being a prayerful person. Prayer is what connects us the most to the Lord. The reason why I say “the most” is because there are other things that we do that connect us to the Lord. Reading the Bible is one of them. When you read the Bible, you are learning more about God. While that is essential, consider the difference between reading a letter verses talking directly to a person. Reading the Bible is like the letter and prayer is talking with God. God is always available, He is always there, but until you start praying, you will miss out on all His benefits (Psalms 103:1-5).
James 5:13-18, “13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”
In this passage of scripture, we see the different uses of prayer. If you are suffering, what should you do? Pray! If you are cheerful, what should you do? Sing psalms! Psalms and praise are born out of prayer. When you are in trouble, you pray until you win in prayer, and out of the victory psalms and praise are born. 2 Chronicles 20; King Jehoshaphat prayed and won the battle in prayer and the Lord instructed them to praise and He would do the work.
If you are sick, what should you do? Pray! If you have committed sin, what should you do? Pray! 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Sometimes unforgiveness prevents us from being healed by the Lord.
Mark 11:22-26, “22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. 25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
How are prayer, faith, and unforgiveness intertwined? Well, faith is the fuel for prayer. When I am praying, I am believing that God is hearing my prayers; I am believing that He will answer all of them. But the fuel for faith is love. Galatians 5:6, “…. but faith working through love.” You cannot walk in faith if you are not walking in love. And what does love do? Love forgives.
After Holy Spirit has given us these different uses of prayer, He tells us this: ‘The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.’ NLT: ‘The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.’ I like the NKJV because of the word effective. For Holy Spirit to say effective, that implies there also are ineffective ways to pray. There are a few things we can do to make our prayers ineffective. Jesus mentions one when He was comparing the pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14). The problem there was pride. The other things that make our prayers ineffective are unbelief and unforgiveness. If we want effective prayers, we need to get rid of pride, unbelief and unforgiveness.
In the Greek, ‘effective fervent’ is one word (energeō). The root definition of this word is an act, deed, thing done: the idea of working is emphasized in opposition to that which is less than work. The point I am illustrating is that prayer is work. You do not just build a prayer life by happenstance. You must choose to pray every day; just like you choose to go to work. But the promise is that our prayers do make a difference.
