Prayer to be reckoned with – What? Mine?!.
Here’s a good saying to remember:
Much prayer, much power; little prayer, little power; no prayer, no power!
Notice that it doesn’t say “much passionate spirit-filled faith-fuelled intercessory prayer, much power…”, even though this may be what you think it means; all it says is “much prayer…” Now, you may love praying or you may really struggle with it [because you are a new Christian and you have never really spent any time communicating with God before] but it doesn’t matter because the saying does not rely on the ‘quality’ of your prayers (if there is such a thing!), just on the fact that you do pray.
As I was thinking about this the following verses came to mind:
“Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out.
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.” (Jam 5:13-18 MSG)
There is something important to notice here; James does not say a ‘prayer of faith’ was to be reckoned with, instead he say that any prayer by anyone [redeemed by Christ and following him] is powerful. Another translation puts it like this: “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].” (Jam 5:16 AMP)
It is not the perceived quality of your prayer that counts, or indeed your faith in receiving what you need, it is the earnestness of your prayer that counts; whether you really mean it. This is why strange things happen in prayer. I have heard stories of children praying cute little childish prayers for people they love not to be sick any more… and, all of a sudden, they are healed! How?! Because it was heartfelt; it may not have been eloquent or indeed a massive Spirit-filled moment but it was heartfelt.
Similarly there was a story in Acts where Peter had been arrested on account of the gospel…
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. (Acts 12:5 NIV)
Naturally this hit them hard because they loved Peter and they knew he loved and served God and the church with all his energy. The least they could do was stay up all night praying (beside they couldn’t sleep worrying about what might happen). What I find interesting is how the night’s events conclude:
Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!"
"You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel."
But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. (Acts 12:13-16 NIV)
Even though they had been praying they did not think that their prayers would be immediately answered. As they prayed they weren’t filled with faith enough to open the door to welcome Peter in; instead they left him [comedicly] on the door because nothing had stirred them to believe that God was going to do something miraculous because of their prayers. It was just an ‘ordinary’ prayer meeting, indeed they were tired confused and wound up, but God wove His extra-ordinary power into their prayers and performed [unbeknown to them] an amazing miracle in releasing Peter!
You may pray without realising that God is doing, or going to do, something miraculous because of it. You may feel weak in your praying but pray; how you feel will not make your prayers powerless, only not praying will do this. Pray with everything in your heart; let it out – you may need to dance, paint, write or even speak but just release your heartfelt prayers.
Much prayer, much power; little prayer, little power; no prayer, no power!
Notice that it doesn’t say “much passionate spirit-filled faith-fuelled intercessory prayer, much power…”, even though this may be what you think it means; all it says is “much prayer…” Now, you may love praying or you may really struggle with it [because you are a new Christian and you have never really spent any time communicating with God before] but it doesn’t matter because the saying does not rely on the ‘quality’ of your prayers (if there is such a thing!), just on the fact that you do pray.As I was thinking about this the following verses came to mind:
“Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out.
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.” (Jam 5:13-18 MSG)
There is something important to notice here; James does not say a ‘prayer of faith’ was to be reckoned with, instead he say that any prayer by anyone [redeemed by Christ and following him] is powerful. Another translation puts it like this: “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].” (Jam 5:16 AMP)
It is not the perceived quality of your prayer that counts, or indeed your faith in receiving what you need, it is the earnestness of your prayer that counts; whether you really mean it. This is why strange things happen in prayer. I have heard stories of children praying cute little childish prayers for people they love not to be sick any more… and, all of a sudden, they are healed! How?! Because it was heartfelt; it may not have been eloquent or indeed a massive Spirit-filled moment but it was heartfelt.
Similarly there was a story in Acts where Peter had been arrested on account of the gospel…
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. (Acts 12:5 NIV)
Naturally this hit them hard because they loved Peter and they knew he loved and served God and the church with all his energy. The least they could do was stay up all night praying (beside they couldn’t sleep worrying about what might happen). What I find interesting is how the night’s events conclude:
Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!"
"You're out of your mind," they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, "It must be his angel."
But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. (Acts 12:13-16 NIV)
Even though they had been praying they did not think that their prayers would be immediately answered. As they prayed they weren’t filled with faith enough to open the door to welcome Peter in; instead they left him [comedicly] on the door because nothing had stirred them to believe that God was going to do something miraculous because of their prayers. It was just an ‘ordinary’ prayer meeting, indeed they were tired confused and wound up, but God wove His extra-ordinary power into their prayers and performed [unbeknown to them] an amazing miracle in releasing Peter!
You may pray without realising that God is doing, or going to do, something miraculous because of it. You may feel weak in your praying but pray; how you feel will not make your prayers powerless, only not praying will do this. Pray with everything in your heart; let it out – you may need to dance, paint, write or even speak but just release your heartfelt prayers.
-Andrew Carey
posted by Andrew at 9:34 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home