LESSONS IN PRAYER

GOD’S Bob April 21, 2021

LESSONS IN PRAYER

James 5: 13-18

I have found myself during my quiet time with God, unable to articulate and communicate what is heavy on my heart when the subject matter is tough circumstances or a crisis of some kind that is overwhelming. My first inclination is to worry and fret. My thoughts all run together sometime. I asked this morning from God that He would help me in this area. And Lo and Behold the scriptures I turned to this day was the ones above from James. THE POWER OF PRAYER.

KJV of James 5: 16 says “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” NLT translation uses “earnest prayer.”

EFFECTIVE is exactly what I and we want our prayers to be, especially in a crisis!

There are 2 things God is looking for when we communicate with Him!

· FERVENCY Passionate prayers come from a burdened heart and from a

Strong sense of personal helplessness. The focus is on a specific

Something or someone we care about deeply. COL. 4: 12 refers to

This type of prayer as “laboring earnestly.” NIV refers to it as “wrestling

In prayer.”

· RIGHTEOUSNESS

This, to me, is the driving force of the verse. It is the IF part of the promise of the Word from God. The prayer of a RIGHTEOUS person is

Effective, fervent, powerful, earnest, etc. When we trust in the Son of God, we are declared righteous because of our position in Him.

Through the Savior, we have been reconciled to God and adopted as

His children. Are we living righteously or are we willingly and knowingly

Engaging in sin. If we are found in Christ Jesus with an obedient heart, then we have the righteousness that comes from God through faith.

PHILIPPIANS 3: 9 “ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

I do not always pray fervently I must confess. Some days I just phone it in as they say!

I need to examine where in my life I am unrighteous in my thoughts and deeds.

I need to take those areas and earnestly present them to God.

They concern our heavenly Father, and He will listen.

THE CLOSER WE ARE TO THE SOURCE (THE FATHER) ...THE EASIER IT IS TO HEAR HIM!!!