The first thing that popped into my mind when I thought about the topic of effective prayer was the scripture of James 5:16 (CJB)
“Therefore, openly acknowledge your sins to one another, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
Well, there I have it right in front of my face, in black and white; the prayer of a righteous person is effective. Now all I have to figure out is, how do I become that righteous person whose prayer will be effective. No big deal…Ha!
So what makes a person righteous?
“Righteous” Strong’s G#1342 “correct, righteous, by impl. innocent:”
Well, I don’t know how you feel but I know there is no way I am ‘innocent’ until I have confessed my known sins and asked for God’s forgiveness. And in order to confess my wrong attitudes and thoughts, whether I verbalized them or not, requires…oh no, here we go again…”humility”. Maybe I can just skip that part. Nobody wants to do it or even read it anyway. Moving on…
Proverbs 15:29 (CJB)
“ADONAI is far from the wicked, but he listens to the prayer of the righteous.” He will listen to me because I’m not wicked
Proverbs 18:10 (CJB)
10 The name of ADONAI is a strong tower; a righteous person runs to it and is raised high [above danger]. I can handle that!
Ephesians 4:24 (CJB) 24 and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth.
I like this one – I can make people believe I’m righteous, especially if I tell myself often enough that I come around to believe it myself. You know the saying “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” was originally referring to politics and politicians, but if it works there, it will work for me.
I always say that if a person is going to use scripture to back up his or her actions, behavior, or beliefs, to be sure to take all of the relevant passages throughout the entire Bible and the context in which the chosen verse was written. So, the paragraph containing Ephesians 4:24 starts with verse 17 so the paragraph reads:
17 Therefore I say this - indeed, in union with the Lord I insist on it: do not live any longer as the pagans live, with their sterile ways of thinking.
18 Their intelligence has been shrouded in darkness, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of the ignorance in them, which in turn comes from resisting God's will.
19 They have lost all feeling, so they have abandoned themselves to sensuality, practicing any kind of impurity and always greedy for more.
Now we’re getting somewhere. I’m okay with that – I’m not a pagan.
20 But this is not the lesson you learned from the Messiah!
…Oh dear, this isn’t good….
21 If you really listened to him and were instructed about him, then you learned that since what is in Yeshua is truth,
22 then, so far as your former way of life is concerned, you must strip off your old nature, because your old nature is thoroughly rotted by its deceptive desires;
23 and you must let your spirits and minds keep being renewed,
24 and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth
There, in verse 24…looking a little closer, those last few words…”that flow from the truth”…so much for convincing myself and others of my righteousness. If it has to be real, that would mean I would have to find humility hidden somewhere deep inside myself and meet our omniscient heavenly Father on my knees...and…that’s just too much to ask. Let’s try another scripture
1 Peter 5:6 “Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may lift you up.” I like that last part! But I can’t have it without the first part...humility and being humble is no fun! In fact, my ego is being crushed by the mere thought of it!
Every direction I turn I see the need for humility stuck in my face. I’m going back to James 5 and see what follows verse 16. It says, “17 Eliyahu [Elijah] was only a human being like us; yet he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and no rain fell on the Land for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the Land produced its crops.”
Wow! Elijah – only a human being like us…and he made the rain stop for over three years? I always assumed he was “special” somehow.
This has gotten a lot longer than I planned so I will stop for now. Besides, it has been a tiring couple of days looking in that spiritual mirror again.
“Therefore, openly acknowledge your sins to one another, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
Well, there I have it right in front of my face, in black and white; the prayer of a righteous person is effective. Now all I have to figure out is, how do I become that righteous person whose prayer will be effective. No big deal…Ha!
So what makes a person righteous?
“Righteous” Strong’s G#1342 “correct, righteous, by impl. innocent:”
Well, I don’t know how you feel but I know there is no way I am ‘innocent’ until I have confessed my known sins and asked for God’s forgiveness. And in order to confess my wrong attitudes and thoughts, whether I verbalized them or not, requires…oh no, here we go again…”humility”. Maybe I can just skip that part. Nobody wants to do it or even read it anyway. Moving on…
Proverbs 15:29 (CJB)
“ADONAI is far from the wicked, but he listens to the prayer of the righteous.” He will listen to me because I’m not wicked
Proverbs 18:10 (CJB)
10 The name of ADONAI is a strong tower; a righteous person runs to it and is raised high [above danger]. I can handle that!
Ephesians 4:24 (CJB) 24 and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth.
I like this one – I can make people believe I’m righteous, especially if I tell myself often enough that I come around to believe it myself. You know the saying “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” was originally referring to politics and politicians, but if it works there, it will work for me.
I always say that if a person is going to use scripture to back up his or her actions, behavior, or beliefs, to be sure to take all of the relevant passages throughout the entire Bible and the context in which the chosen verse was written. So, the paragraph containing Ephesians 4:24 starts with verse 17 so the paragraph reads:
17 Therefore I say this - indeed, in union with the Lord I insist on it: do not live any longer as the pagans live, with their sterile ways of thinking.
18 Their intelligence has been shrouded in darkness, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of the ignorance in them, which in turn comes from resisting God's will.
19 They have lost all feeling, so they have abandoned themselves to sensuality, practicing any kind of impurity and always greedy for more.
Now we’re getting somewhere. I’m okay with that – I’m not a pagan.
20 But this is not the lesson you learned from the Messiah!
…Oh dear, this isn’t good….
21 If you really listened to him and were instructed about him, then you learned that since what is in Yeshua is truth,
22 then, so far as your former way of life is concerned, you must strip off your old nature, because your old nature is thoroughly rotted by its deceptive desires;
23 and you must let your spirits and minds keep being renewed,
24 and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth
There, in verse 24…looking a little closer, those last few words…”that flow from the truth”…so much for convincing myself and others of my righteousness. If it has to be real, that would mean I would have to find humility hidden somewhere deep inside myself and meet our omniscient heavenly Father on my knees...and…that’s just too much to ask. Let’s try another scripture
1 Peter 5:6 “Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may lift you up.” I like that last part! But I can’t have it without the first part...humility and being humble is no fun! In fact, my ego is being crushed by the mere thought of it!
Every direction I turn I see the need for humility stuck in my face. I’m going back to James 5 and see what follows verse 16. It says, “17 Eliyahu [Elijah] was only a human being like us; yet he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and no rain fell on the Land for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the Land produced its crops.”
Wow! Elijah – only a human being like us…and he made the rain stop for over three years? I always assumed he was “special” somehow.
This has gotten a lot longer than I planned so I will stop for now. Besides, it has been a tiring couple of days looking in that spiritual mirror again.