S129P9 – The signs of the righteous: fruitful prayer
Jam. 5:16-18
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. 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. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
He was the guy who could get his friends a deal on anything. Whatever they wanted to buy, he would say that he knew someone who could hook them up. A new acquaintance of his who did not know him very well heard these conversations often and decided to speak with him about a car. She had her eye on one in particular, and she thought she had found a good deal, but she decided to give her new friend a shot at finding her a better deal. He told her where to go and to drop his name for a discount, so she did. However, although he was known to that business, his name carried no favor. His talk was just talk, and knowing him brought her no benefit.
Prayer allows us to be an intermediary between people and our Father. They need something, and we know someone who can help them. We pray in the name of Jesus because it is through him that we access our Father. For the righteous, our prayers carry weight and favor. When we seek God for change, we must have grounds on which to plead our case. We do not expect him to move because we possess within ourselves any right to an answer to prayer. We expect that He answers our prayers because He is now our Father as a result of our sonship through the Son. The righteous can count on our requests made in the Son’s name because He has favor with the Father that we now enjoy.
To this day, I am still amazed when I see a clear answer to someone’s prayer. It is not that I expect God to ignore us or always make us wait, but watching him move as a result of our requests just seems magical. It can seem even more magical for those who do not believe as we believe, and that is why it is important for us to walk in righteousness. The effective prayers produced by the righteous can serve not only as a great provision but a phenomenal testimony to the power and benevolence of the God we serve. Father, give us the faith to ask and expect, and keep us living righteously so that our prayers produce powerful and dependable results.