Prayer Power


James 5:16-18
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

 James continues strong in his encouragement to us to be people of prayer. The thesis of the day is that prayer has great power in the hands of a righteous person. His case in point is the Old Testament prophet Elijah. Here we find a man who loved God and served Him in the face of dangerous and epic obstacles. He was considered enemy number one by King Ahab and his evil wife, Queen Jezebel. Elijah faced a showdown with the prophets of Baal that is truly fantastic. (You can read the story for your self in 1 Kings 18 & 19.) Discerning God's will that a drought was in order, Elijah prayed in accordance with that plan. When it was time for the drought to end, Elijah prayed for that as well. He was a righteous man and God answered his prayers in dramatic ways.

 When we pray, first we seek the path that God has chosen and talk to God about it. That sounds amazingly simple, and it is. But it means that you have a working relationship with God and actually desire to see His will accomplished more than your own. It means that you know that you are desperately in need of a Savior and Jesus is the answer to that need. (This is where you get the "righteousness".) The only question that remains is whether or not we actually use this incredible tool we've been given.

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