James 5:16 - Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed . The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
I love this verse. Today I want to talk about the last part of the verse, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
Effectual - to call out for help, the action brings results - to hear from God we must call out to Him. He wants us to acknowledge that He is our help and to ask for it.
Fervent - ardent, earnest, full of zeal - the prayer based on the knowledge that God can and does answer. It is a consistent and impassioned. It is sincere and urgent. It is not a 'bless us every one prayer' it is specific and a prayer full of hope and trust.
Righteous - one that follows God's direction and serves God with their whole heart. One who is virtuous, upright and honorable. Our only real righteousness is in Jesus Christ and His forgiveness of our sins.
Availeth - gives an advantage to, provides help or benefit
First, today's blog is aimed straight at me! God just wants me to share what He is telling me with you. Have you ever heard someone say 'I prayed but God didn't answer'? I have a number of times. Sometimes they say that because God doesn't do things the way they think it should be done. Sometimes it is because God doesn't do things in the time frame that they want it done.
But many times it is because we don't meet our end of the responsibility. God isn't a genie in a bottle that pops us to give us what we want, when we want it. He isn't superman flying in at the last minute to save the day (although He often does).
God wants to answer our prayers but we have to be in a condition to pray them. We also need to be serious about praying them. How often is prayer something we whisper quickly as we start to fall asleep? How often do we go to sleep without even that? How often do we say 'when my show goes off, I'll read my Bible and pray' rather than 'once I finish my Bible study and prayer I'll watch tv if there is time'?
Our priorities are all out of order and yet we wonder why God doesn't move. God talks to us a lot about prayer and about Him giving us our answers in the Bible. He says we must repent of our sins, if we want our prayers heard. He says if we have something against someone OR if they have something against us, we must make it right. He says we must forgive- in today's world that one is hard for too many people. In our 'it is all about me society', we believe it is our right to hold a grudge or not forgive. It's not, God's word tells us that over and over.
He also tell us in Psalms 37:4 - Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Do you delight in the Lord?
Delight - to take great pleasure in pleasing. Do you want to please the Lord? If so, are you doing what it takes to do so or are you just wishing it would happen without any work on your part? Pleasing God takes effort. It means doing His will instead of your own. It means that we turn from those things that bring dishonor to Him and those things that hurt or offend Him.
If you are a parent, what pleases you about your children? Are you pleased when they are disobedient? Are you pleased when they are disrespectful or dishonor you? Are you pleased when they don't do their work (school or chores)? Are you pleased when they hang with a bad crowd? I don't think any parent would say yes to any of these. In fact, doing these things cause a strain in our relationships. We often have to punish our children. We often have to take things away from them and our conversations are not cordial.
The same applies to God and His children. He can't ignore our actions. Now just as parents, sometimes He may give a 2nd or 3rd try before He punishes but if we refuse do what is right, He must punish us. What kind of parent would He be if He didn't? And that punishment can either drive us to our knees or make us bow up and become more rebellious.
But until we repent and seek fellowship with Him, our actions are going to impact the answers to our prayers. Just as we don't reward our children for being disobedient, God doesn't reward our being disobedient.
I want my prayers answered, I want to delight in God. Now I just have to act on those desires, the devil will fight it and in fact, the more I seek God's presence the more the devil will fight. But the joy of God's blessing far exceeds the devil's roadblock.
Today may we fervently pray in faith and see God move in our lives!
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