Prayer
Effectiveness of Prayers
James 5:16
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.
NKJV
Effectiveness is the belief that our prayers have power over everything. Prayer meets our inner needs removing fear, strengthening us, and providing guidance and wisdom.
Prayer is effective in the lives of others giving them comfort, inner strength, spiritual knowledge and guidance and equipping them for what is to come.
Prayer changes the world --
Jonah was delivered from the
belly of a great fish
Jonah 2:7-10 7 "When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
8 "Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. 9 But I will
sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have
vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." 10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and
it vomited Jonah onto dry land. NKJV
Jabez prayed for protection
from harm
1 Chronicles 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of
Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory,
that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil,
that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.
NKJV
People are healed
James 5:14-15 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. NKJV
Elijah stopped and started rain
-- but the story as told in 1 Kings 17 and 18 does not make it clear that
these events were the direct result of Elijah&s prayers. It is only via
the New Testament that God reveals this part of the story.
James 5:17-18 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.
NKJV
Notice a key element of these passages -- James places great emphasis on the fact that Elijah was "a man like us." James' point is that if Elijah could produce such results through prayers, so can we!
Are your prayers effective? Your continuing goal should be to make them more effective!
