Luke 18:1-8 and James 5:13-18

(There will be no post next week.  The next post will be on or around May 19.)

"always pray and not give up."  Luke 18:1b

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."  James 5:16b

There is power in prayer.  Needs are met, and the seemingly impossible is accomplished through prayer.  Prayer should be a daily and constant part of all of our lives.  It should almost be like breathing to us.  We may at times become discouraged and not always feel like praying, but we must persist in praying.

Luke 18:1 says that we should "always pray and not give up."  Obviously we can't have our hands folded in prayer every second of the day, but there should be a constant attitude of prayer in our lives. Our line of communication with our Lord should always be open.  There should always be a sense of the Lord's presence right beside us.

We often have a tendency to pray only after our own perceived resources and attempts to solve a problem has failed.  We need to pray first and "always" and not seek to run ahead of the Lord. We are also to be persistent in our prayers and "not give up."  Even if if we have been praying about something for a long time with seemingly no visible results, we must persist in prayer and trust the Lord to bring about His results in His perfect timing.  God is infinitely wiser than us.  Luke 18:7-8 says,  "And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night?  Will He keep putting them off?  I tell you, He will see that you get justice, and quickly."

James 5:16 states, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."  God's power is released in our lives and in the lives of others after we pray.  The possibilities of what can be accomplished through the power of prayer are limitless.  We need to be persistently praying for our needs .  We must also be persistently praying for the needs of others and for the needs of the world around us.

We need to not only be persistent in our prayers, but we must be fervent and genuine in our prayers. There is great power in persistent and fervent prayer.  Our prayers requests also must be specific, if we expect specific answers to our prayers.  There is great power in Holy Spirit directed specific and fervent prayers.

Elijah in the Old Testament was a man of prayer.  Although Elijah sometimes became discouraged and faltered in his faith, much was accomplished through his prayers.  James 5:17-18 says, "Elijah was a man just like us.  He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.  Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." Read the exciting stories of Elijah in I Kings in the Old Testament!  Elijah, the prophet for God's Old Testament people, knew the power of prayer.  Elijah understood and saw that the impossible could be accomplished through the power of prayer.  Elijah's prayers were specific, persistent, and fervent; and Elijah's prayers were answered!

We too can experience the power of prayer in our lives.  We need to first be sure that our hearts are right, and we need to be sure that we are passionate about our Lord and His will.  Then we may and must come to the Lord boldly with our specific and fervent requests.  Like Elijah and many other Biblical saints of old we too can experience the power of answered prayer!