The Epistle of James - Godly Values
Part 41 - The prayer of a righteous man
James 5v16b-18
5th April 2019
Last week's passage, which was about calling the elders to pray for healing, ended with these words:
James 5v16b
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
This actually means the prayer of a righteous man or woman - not just a righteous elder - is powerful and effective. I've heard this idea explained in two different ways. Some people say, "A Christian is made righteous by the blood of Christ, so we're all righteous, so all our prayers are effective". That's true. But I've also heard it said that if we live a righteous life, our prayers are effective. That's true, as well.
We can put these two truths together. If you're a Christian, and you're taking the Christian life seriously, repenting of your sin and following God's teaching, your prayers are very powerful and very effective. The prayers of a non-Christian are not as powerful as the prayers of a Christian. The prayers of a Christian living a sinful life are not as powerful as the prayers of a Christian living a good life. So if your prayers aren't being answered, try repentance. It may be in an area totally unrelated to what you're praying about, but it must be the right thing to do, and it will make your prayers more effective.
Someone might say, "Well, I've been praying about a situation for fifteen years and nothing's happened". That may be true, but it doesn't disprove the Scripture. Every time you pray, God answers. Often His answer isn't the one you want, but He always answers. He often answers by changing you, as we've said before. For example, if you've fallen out with somebody and you pray, "God change them", God often says, "No, but I'll change you". Well, I'll take that. It's certainly a good enough reason to pray. I need God to change me. But actually, if you look back over your prayer life, you'll find that God has answered many of your prayers in much the way you asked.
Prayer works. I keep a prayer diary and I can see that, over the years, most of the things I've prayed for, God has done. Not as quickly as I wanted, but He's done them. Sometimes God doesn't work as fast as we'd like, and He doesn't always work in exactly the way we'd like. But your prayers are powerful and effective.
James gives us a wonderful example of the prayer of a righteous man:
James 5v17-18
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain
on the land for three and a half years.
Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
Elijah's prayer that no rain would fall for 3 1/2 years changed Israel. It resulted in the Israelite people turning away from false gods and back to the true God. And your prayers and mine can change the society in which we live.
Elijah was doing God's work. He knew how to pray in accordance with God's will. He was a person just like you and me, but his prayer life was so deep and so consistent that he grew close enough to God to know what to pray for.
I want to be like that. I want to be so close to God that I know what prayers to offer. I want to be led by the Holy Spirit in my prayer life. I want to sense His Holy Spirit prompting me to pray in particular ways for particular situations. I want to pray in accordance with the will of God, and see my prayers answered.
We can allow God to shape our character, to make us so aligned with God that we share His heart more and more over time. Then we will pray for what He intends to do, and we will see God do amazing things.
When we pray, we're not giving God advice. How could we? We're participating in bringing about His purposes. We don't fully understand why God includes our prayers in His programme for the universe, but we know that He does.
So let's pray. Let's dare to pray big prayers, dream big dreams for God, and pray them into reality. Let's let God give us His heart, and show us how to pray. Prayer is the most important thing we do.