Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 4:16
Do you receive postings from the Gospel Hall Forum? If not, you should! One of the most valuable functions of that forum is to share prayer requests. This is a great comfort and blessing to many people, and God has used it for His glory. I remember a number of years ago one such request, from a brother in England who was part of a group taking Bibles and literature to Hungary. The group, mostly young people, had two or three days for their mission, but when they approached the Hungarian border, the officials threw up a major obstacle. There would be a significant delay. So one of the responsible men sent out an urgent prayer request on the forum. Christians in many countries began praying for the doors to open. In a surprisingly short time, the border officials stepped out of the way and allowed the Christians to proceed. Effectual, fervent prayers were surely heard by Heaven!
The context of this expression is the plea for Christians to pray for one another. And James uses the example of Elijah’s prayers for drought and rain to prove that God hears and responds. What about all the prayers that are raised in the Assembly’s weekly prayer meeting, can and will God answer all these prayers? We know by sweet experience that He can, or else we would cease the practice. What about our personal prayers for the people who we bring before the Throne of Grace? These too we know God can answer. But God does place a couple of conditions on prayer, and we do well to heed these.
Prayer that is effectual refers to needs that we know and understand, and care about. Specific prayer, requests that we can visualize and understand. The term fervent refers to our passion and care, to the strength of our urgency to bring the matter before God. Such prayers are often watered with tears. So now we know why our prayers don’t often accomplish much! We ask in generalities and we ask casually. (Hey, Lord, bless everybody today. Amen.) How do we expect God to respond to abstracts? And how can we expect Him to care if we don’t care ourselves?
Is there a special need you have today? If it matters deeply to you, share that with the Lord. And rejoice in His response. -Jim MacIntosh