Fast 2012 Devotion – Day 7

Topic: Frequent, Fervent, Full of Faith: Power in Prayer
Author: Alicia Hussey

James 5:16-18
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Luke 11:1-13
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”  2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:  “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.  4 Forgive us our sins,for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.  9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We must never forget that the highest kind of prayer is never the making of requests.  Prayer at its holiest moment is the entering into God, to a place of such blessed union as it makes miracles seem tame and remarkable answers to prayer appear something very far short of wonderful by comparison. -A.W. Tozer

Do you believe in prayer?
Believe instead in a God who hears and responds. James tells us the prayer of a righteous man IS powerful and effective. There is no question there! Why is prayer powerful and effective, because we are righteous on our own? Absolutely not! It’s all about dependence on and faith in God. In order for us to be made righteous, we have to believe that Jesus came, walked on the earth, died, and rose again for our forgiveness. To approach God in prayer, we have to believe that his ways are higher than our ways and that he has our ultimate good in his view. After praying, we have to believe that God is working on our behalf whether we hear him, feel him, and see him, or have no proof beside our faith that he listened to what’s going on in our world. So you see, prayer has nothing to with us or our words and everything to do with our belief that God IS hearing and working!

Jesus lovingly and clearly lays out for us how we should pray. In summarizing Luke 11, we see that Jesus commands three things of our prayer, frequency, fervency, and faith. What do these words mean in relation to our prayer life and how we access our Heavenly Father? Frequency speaks to persistence. The man who was in need of bread would not stop knocking on his friend’s door until he got what he wanted! He wasn’t even concerned that his neighbor would get annoyed, he knew what he needed and he was not stopping until he got it. Are you persistently seeking God for the things that you need in this moment? Fervency speaks to intensity. Paint a picture of this parable in your head. A man needs food, it’s midnight, he needs it enough to knock on someone else’s door. If he is that desperate, there is very little chance that his knocks were light and dainty; chances are he waspounding on the door. Jesus endorsed this kind of intensity in seeking what we need from God! Does the intensity of your prayer life reflect the desperation of your need?

Finally, Jesus, through all of Luke 11 commands us to have faith when we pray, faith that God can provide for us, faith that God can forgive us, faith that when we approach God he will provide an answer. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” God is asking us to believe for these things even when we have no earthly view of them when we pray. Are you seeking God persistently, intensely, and in faith for the things that you need?

Do you believe God hears you and will respond to your prayers?  Don’t answer that too quickly.  The way to know the answer is to identify how much time and energy you invest into praying.

Prayer: God, I want my prayer life to be effective and powerful! I long to seek for you just like the man in Luke 11 sought for the bread that he so desperately needed. Holy Spirit, empower me to believe for things I cannot see! God search my heart, show me whether I have believed in prayer or whether I believe in the power of a God who promises to respond when I pray. Help me to align the time and energy I invest in my prayer time with my belief that you hear me and will respond. Guide me as I journey to a place of richer, deeper prayer, communing with you. I believe that you have made me righteous and I also believe the promise in James that says that the prayer of a righteous person IS powerful and effective. Hold me up in the moments when it’s hard to believe you hear me and strengthen me to know you are right there working in every moment. I long to be close to you. In Jesus’ Name! Amen!