THE BELIEVERS AND HIS PRAYER LIFE Part 3
We saw:
- The Challenge to Prayer
- The Character of Prayer
And now I want to look at;
III. V. 17-18 THE CONFIDENCE IN PRAYER
James 5:13-18 (NKJV) 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 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. 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. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
- God’s Promises in Prayer
- To Hear Us –
Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV) ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
Isaiah 65:24 (NKJV) “It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.
- To Help Us –
Matthew 7:7-8 (NKJV) “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Mark 11:24 (NKJV) Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV) Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
God’s Performance in Prayer – We have a God who is able to do, as Paul says, “Exceeding, abundantly above all that we can ask or think.” Eph. 3:20. What James tells us about Elijah. God, moved in response to his prayer of faith!)
God does not always answer prayers to our liking, or on our timetable, but He does answer the prayers of His children!)
The Property is at Calvary Baptist Church, in Powder Springs, Georgia. When I was a child and at Church during prayer services on Wednesday nights, I remember hearing the men crying out to God for the property behind the Church. Some 30 years passed and I got to see the Lord answer those prayers.
I sat as the CFO of the Church at the lawyer’s office and had the privilege of signing the paper and receiving the deed to said property. God hears and answers PRAYER.
This truth is also seen in the two following illustrations:
For several years after her conversion, Mrs. Hanover had prayed earnestly for her husband’s salvation. Then one day he was killed in an automobile accident. She thought God had not answered her prayers, so she became disillusioned with God and stopped living for Him.
Five years later, she met a man named Roger Simms, who told her an amazing story. The day Mr. Hanover was killed, he had picked up Roger, who was hitchhiking. When Roger, who was a Christian, witnessed to him about Christ, Mr. Hanover was so convicted that he pulled off the road, wept, and prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior. Hearing this, Mrs. Hanover wept for joy and grief–joy that her husband had been saved, and grief that she had stopped obeying God and had given in to discouragement.
And,
While Josh McDowell was attending seminary in California, his father went home to be with the Lord. His mother had died years earlier, but Josh was not sure of her salvation. He became depressed, thinking that she might be lost. Was she a Christian or not? The thought obsessed him. “Lord,” he prayed, “somehow give me the answer so I can get back to normal. I’ve just got to know.” It seemed like an impossible request.
Two days later, Josh drove out to the ocean. He walked to the end of a pier to be alone. There sat an old woman in a lawn chair, fishing. “Where’s your home originally?” she asked. “Michigan–Union City,” Josh replied. “Nobody’s heard of it. I tell people it’s a suburb of–” “Battle Creek,” interrupted the woman. “I had a cousin from there. Did you know the McDowell family?” Stunned, John responded, “Yes, I’m Josh McDowell!”
“I can’t believe it,” said the woman. “I’m a cousin to your mother.” “Do you remember anything at all about my mother’s spiritual life?” asked Josh. “Sure–your mom and I were just girls–teenagers–when a tent revival came to town. It was the fourth night–we both went forward to accept Christ.” “Praise God!” shouted Josh, startling the surrounding fisherman.)
God’s People in Prayer – According to James, Elijah was not perfect, but was subject to the same passions that afflict us all. However, God used Him to do great things through the prayers of faith. You see, God deals with us based on the here and now, He never holds our confessed past against us. This encourages me, because all of us a prone to failure, but it is a comfort to know that when we get into sin, we can come back to the Father and have our prayer lives restored by simply repenting before Him.
1 John 1:9-10 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you take the time to look at others in the Bible, Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Hezekiah, etc., you find that they were all men who failed God at one time or the other, yet they were all great men of prayer. I am grateful that we have a God who invites us to join Him bringing our needs to His attention –
Hebrews 4:15-16 (NKJV) For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(Great things happen when a saved people call on an omnipotent God!)
As we have considered the subject of prayer today, I hope your own heart has been stirred to think about revamping your personal prayer life. I would like to see us get back to a genuine prayer meeting before the Lord. Let us respond now as He has led us. Will you do that?
Three Prayers that we pray, I believe every prayer falls into one of these categories.
Prayer of Acceptance (Salvation) Repent = verb feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin.
Prayer of Petition Your request
Prayer of Praise. Your Worship.
Adoration (Thanking Him for who He is)
Thanksgiving (Thanking Him for what He has done)
PRAY
