The Power Of Prayer...

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

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.

My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

(James 5:16-20, NIV)

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

Prayer...there's all kinds, isn't there?

In my life I've probably prayed them all. As a kid, it starts with memorized prayer: "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food, by His hands we all are fed, give us Lord our daily bread, Amen!" From there it moves on to the rambling conversations young children have with God, like the ones my son and daughter pray now. The topics are all across the board, and nothing is out of bounds to share with Him. As a teen, those extended times in prayer diminished, only leaving myself time for "arrow prayers", short and to the point, mostly to get me out of a jam, usually of my own making. As an adult, I wish I could say it's gotten more consistent...but to this point, it hasn't. Some days I can spend an hour in prayer, talking and listening to God. Other days? It's a struggle for me to concentrate long enough to get started, let alone finish a prayer. Like many of you, it's hard for me to commit the time every day to do it. It's not that I don't have it, I just fill it with other things of less importance. I always find time to pray if some one's sick or in trouble, but the regular day-to-day conversations have been harder to commit to.

Problem is, like any relationship, it can't get any deeper and closer without spending time in conversation. You look at the story of Elijah above. He prayed that it wouldn't rain to show God's power to the people. It didn't rain...for 3 1/2 years!! That's amazing...but that power is available to all of us...we just don't believe and invest enough to use it. I've seen God do amazing things through prayer: healing, reaching the lost, and many other things...but still I don't do it enough.

I need to remember what the power of prayer can do, and I need to live righteously and spend time with Him to make those prayers effective, for His glory.