James 5:16-18
" Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 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 earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit."
Perhaps the most under used gift believers are giving by God is the action and attitude of prayer. We so underestimate the power of prayer and we so spend little time in the work of it. And, it is a work. It is first a work done by the Spirit and not by us. We are only the vessels of prayer and must learn to submit to the Spirit so that He can offer prayer for us, albeit through us. Note how Paul frames this thought:
Romans 8:26-27
"In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
It must also see that it is work when we consider the example that James gives. Of all the Old Testament examples for prayer that James could give, he picks out Elijah, a man of similar passions to us, who prays for rain. He doesn't use Daniel or Joseph, who each prayed for wisdom to interpret the king's dream(s). James doesn't use the three Hebrew boys who are facing a fiery furnace as an example of how to pray. He doesn't use one of David's or Aspah's great Psalms as an example of prayer warriors. And, he doesn't use our Savior, who sweat drops like blood in prayer. No, he uses Elijah, who, he states, was just like us. Elijah, before he prayed on Mt. Carmel for rain, was on the run from King Ahab. He would go on the run and hide out after Mr. Carmel, as well. But, in the story of Mt. Carmel and the prophets of Baal, Elijah puts God to the test and asks for rain to stop a long, long drought. He had previously asked God to stop the rain and didn't rain for three years and six months. He then asked God to make it rain and it did. Now, that is being in a state of prayer and close to God in prayer. Imagine if you went to the governance of this land and told them if they did not repent you would pray for a drought that would last 3 1/2 years. Imagine if that did happen and you then prayed that the drought would instantly stop and it did. Elijah was a man like us ... fearful and human ... yet, he prayed earnestly and something like rain stopped and started, as though Elijah's prayers were like the on-off knob on the kitchen faucet. The "effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." Not using prayer is like having a bank account, needing money, but never going to the bank. Not using prayer is like having lumber, nails and a hammer and not building because you don't have a hammer ... its right there, but you don't use it. Prayer is a powerful tool God gave us to communion with Him and to ask for His will to be done in our lives and in the lives of others. James already told us to not abuse that tool in James 4:1-5. Don't use it to ask for things we simply want to consume in lust. Use it to accomplish things for God's plan .. use it.
No comments:
Post a Comment