THE PRAYERS OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN
James 5:16
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
A few years back a friend of mine got a shot at the buck of a lifetime. When he released the arrow he thought he had made a good shot but he never found the buck.
Late following winter he was walking through the same property, still frustrated over that buck. At one point he stopped and prayed that the Lord would give him some confirmation that the buck was still alive. Within a very short time, as he neared the stand where he had shot at the buck, he noticed something on the ground within sight of the stand. When he walked over to it, there they were, not on, but matching antlers... and not just any antlers, but the matching set from the buck he had hit. God had answered his prayers.
This Bible verse should be an awesome encouragement to each of us. In the last part of the verse it talks about the prayers of a righteous person. We know from other verses that if we've accepted Jesus then He's made us righteous, so this verse is talking to us that are Christians.
This verse tells us that a Christian's prayers aren't just some words that we hope that God hears and later does something about. No, it shows us that our prayers will produce wonderful results.
This means when you pray, you can be assured that God hears you and that your prayers will produce something! This should encourage us to keep praying and believing, because your prayers work!
My mother has shared a story with me about my grandmother and uncle and the power within the prayers of a Christian mother.
She told me, "One night my mom woke at 1:35 with a feeling that she needed to pray for safety for her son who was driving semi truck that night.
The next morning my brother told my Mom that late the night before he had hit dangerous icy roads. But he said 'I know that I will make it, Moms at home praying for me.' Mom asked him, what time this happened and he responded that it was 1:35."
God listens to the prayers of His children. He loves us more than we can imagine. What loving parent doesn't want to give their children all that is good for them? Our heavenly Father desires that all good things are ours... We just have to ask.
When we ask with the right motives, God wants to give us all that we need.
James 4:2-3 explains this, "You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
"The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (or mother) avails much."
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