Monday, March 19, 2018

5:17 – Add Power to Your Prayer!


Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! – Jas 5:17

Prayer is important. It’s the lifeblood and lifeline of the Believer. 1Thes 5:17 enjoins us to “Pray without ceasing”. But sadly, praying repeatedly over and over again: morning after morning, night after night, service after service … can introduce a certain monotony and predictability that results in canned, powerless prayers. This is when we’re essentially ‘praying for praying sake’: praying just because that’s what Christians are supposed to do.

Such prayers are terrible, not just because they often do not yield results, but also because they condition you not to even care that they do not yield results. If that’s your case, you need to add some energy and vitality into your prayers.

The first (Thessalonians?) 5:17 asks us to pray without ceasing, the second one (the one from James) tells us of the way to get results from it. It says, “Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months.”

We all know Elijah and his signature ability to call down fire from heaven at will. This man prayed and sealed the skies up for over three years. His life was so filled with the miraculous that he didn’t even taste death! Now that’s a “Prayer Warrior” if there ever was one, right?

Wrong.

At least according to James. James insists that there was nothing particularly special about Elijah, he didn’t possess more anointing, more grace, or more access to God. He just knew how to pray effectively. In other words, says James, if Elijah could do it, you can do it. That may sound like a rather radical idea, but maybe that’s exactly what we need: a radical infusion of Passion, Energy And Focus into our prayer lives in order to cause change.

Let the sparks begin: your prayer life will never be the same again.

AMEN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
GREG ELKAN

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