A preview from todays My Daily Inspiration Open up the Heavens “...The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.” And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” ~ James 5:16b-18 The great missionary, Corrie ten Boom once said this concerning prayer, Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.” By far the greatest contribution we can make to our church is a legitimate, sincere, and consistent prayer life. This includes praying for the church’s needs, for the people’s needs, and for God’s purposes to prevail. This must be a priority and focus of every church member, because one of the main ways we grow together in Christ is through ongoing prayer for one another. This mindset results in a selfless Christian that is concerned for others and daily petitions the Lord on behalf of those struggling. A praying church family is a powerful church family. James is explaining just that to his Jewish believing audience that were on the run because of the evil mistreatment concerning their faith. As a result of this persecution, spiritual weariness and weakness set in, causing many to lose hope. Some were even falling into sin. James exhorts the church to pray for one another, and points them back to one of the greatest examples of powerful prayer in the Old Testament. Elijah, the Old Testament hero that confronted the false worship of Baalism by pronouncing a three and half year drought upon the land. Elijah actually means “the Lord is God.” His ministry and prayer perfectly corresponded to his name as he was making a bold statement to those that were trusting the false gods of rain and fertility for nourishment for their crops. By calling on God to withhold the rain and then praying for...
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:00:29 +0000
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