Breakfast With Christ - The Effective Prayer
BREAKFAST WITH CHRIST
TOPIC: THE EFFECTIVE PRAYER
SCRIPTURE: JAMES 5:16B
"effective fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much"
The dictionary defines 'fervent' as "having or displaying a passionate intensity". Effective is also defined as "successful in producing a desired or intended result". These two words as used by James in our scripture for today explains how our prayers should be. Our prayers need to be fervent and effective if they are to achieve results.
Another element of this scripture that has been misunderstood is James' reference to a 'righteous man'. Some people believe a Christian needs to do something special to achieve the righteous state for his/her prayers to achieve results. It has to be understood that every Christian is righteous not by virtue of our deeds but by the Grace of God(Romans 3:20). Jesus Christ is our righteousness. Every Christian has the righteousness of Christ. When Christ laid on the cross, He took our sin nature and gave us His nature of divine righteousness(2 Corinthians 5:21). Hence, every Christian by virtue of his/her association with Christ is a righteous man/woman.
So the effective and fervent prayer of every Christian will achieve results. Our prayers need to be done in all seriousness.
We don't need to pray as though we were joking or talking to some random person. God is the Almighty creator. When communicating with Him, we need to be very serious.
When we kneel before our God in prayer, it is not a time to display how rich our vocabulary is. The effectiveness of a prayer isn't merely about how many words we say but the faith in the words we say. Prayer is a display of faith in God.
Brethren, if we want our prayers to be effective and achieve results for us, then we need to attach some seriousness to our prayers and back our words with a complete faith in God. God bless you.
Prayer line:
Lord, thank you for always giving me the opportunity to pray to you. Please help me to have faith in you when I pray. Amen
Further Scripture Reading:
Romans 3:20
2 Corinthians 5:21