This week's crowd is a small and intimate one due to so many folks being out of town. As a result, Pastor Rick shared a simple but important message for this moment in our congregational life about effective prayer. The message was recorded in audio and is linked here. However, in case you would like them, Pastor Rick is sharing his notes below as well. We trust it will bless you.
"Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness." Martin Luther.
As I have shared before, “prayer” is a huge topic. It is a broad and deep idea and activity about which thousands of pages have been penned. But today, I felt for our small group that I needed to talk about prayer in a simple and meaningful way. Prayer is the life breath of the Christian soul. The Christian that does not pray does not live. Matthew Henry is quoted as saying, “You may as soon find a living man that does not breathe, as a living Christian that does not pray.” And when asked how much time he spent in prayer, that great man of prayer, George Mueller, is quoted as saying, “Hours every day. But I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk and when I lie down and when I arise. And the answers are always coming.”
One of the first objections that often quickly arises from Christians is either:
“Well I’m no George Mueller.”
Or “I am not called to be an intercessor so I just can’t pray like that.”
Well I hope once you see them on the screen there in black and white that you also see these words for the poor excuses they are. First of all, there is no expectation that you or I are to be George Mueller. However, there is a clear expectation that we are to have what the old saints I knew used to call a “prayer life.” Jesus taught in Luke that “Men ought always to pray and not to faint (18:1 & 21:36).” The Apostle Paul taught the same thing to the Christians in Rome, Ephesus, Colosse, and Thessalonica, writing things like:
“continuing instant in prayer” (Romans 12:12)
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;” (Ephesians 6:18)
“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;” (Colossians 4:2)
“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
I hope from these passages you grasp with me very quickly that all believers are called to live with prayer a constant thing in their lives. Do you pray continually unto the Lord? Do you seek him always everywhere?
But this is not the goal of my sermon – to guilt trip us about whether we are praying or about how much we are praying – though if you feel guilt, then I recommend you pray about that!
Rather today I want to focus on something further. I want instead to address these questions: “What prayers does God hear? & What prayers does He answer?” I cannot study this exhaustively today, but I hope to put us on the pathway. I suppose that the seed for this message was planted when I recently saw this statement from someone I love: “Whether you are serving the Lord or not He’ll hear your prayers.” When I saw that statement, it grieved me a little bit. In that statement there was reflected a misunderstanding of God and of what the Bible teaches about our prayers.
According to the Scripture, the only prayers that God hears and answers from the sinner is the sincere prayer of repentance. 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Observationally, He also seems to sometimes answer the desperate call for aid from a sinner – but this seems to me discretionary at best – that it is only done because He can see that in the long run it will result in their salvation &/or His glory. If you do not agree with this idea that God does not listen to sinners, let me share some scriptures with you to back it up:
Job 27:8,9 – “For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?”
Psalm 66:18 – “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”
Proverbs 15:29 – “The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.”
Proverbs 28:9 – “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”
John 9:31 – “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.”
There are other scriptures that support this truth that God does not attend unto the prayers of the unrighteous and wicked, but I think these are clearly stated and we need not list more.
The implication then is that God only responds to the prayers of the righteous. Does the Scripture back this up?
Psalm 34:15 – “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.”
Psalm 145:18 – “The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.”
Proverbs 15:29 – “The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.”
1 John 3:22 “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”
James 5:16 – “16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Having briefly presented the case for the argument that God only hears and answers the prayers of the righteous, this last verse is the one I want to focus on today. Let’s look at its context.
James 5:12-18
12 ¶ But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? 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 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Now we have to understand a few things about this passage. It appears that the Apostle James is writing about the healing of the sick. James describes the remedy of prayer and anointing in verse 14. Then he emphasizes the element of faith in verse 15. In verse 16 it gets interesting. He says, that we are to confess our faults one to another (our failures, errors, and sins) and pray for each other that healing can be found. This is the basis for the final sentence of verse 16. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” In other words, effective prayer is based on faith, forgiveness, and righteousness.
To those that might object that such effective praying is not possible, the Apostle James calls to remembrance Elijah and the story of the rain from 1 Kings 17 that we talked about earlier. He does this to emphasize that even the humblest and simplest of believers can experience answers to prayer through effective praying just as Elijah who was just as human as any of us.
So let’s look at that recipe again: Effective Praying Rests on:
Faith
Forgiveness
Righteousness
Faith
Faith is the first essential ingredient to effective praying. If we do not believe, we cannot even approach God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. “Hebrews 11:6 - But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Faith is the beginning of it all.
Forgiveness
The prayer of faith results in personal forgiveness and forgiveness one to another. Forgiveness is a reconciling. If we have prayed unto the Lord and found His forgiveness, we should then find strength in that forgiveness to extend forgiveness to those around us. We also know (from the teachings of Jesus and the apostles) that we who are forgiven must forgive those around us. Only in this reconciled position, can we continue to live and walk in faith.
Righteousness
By faith, having found forgiveness, we may then learn the life of righteousness that comes when we walk in the righteousness of Christ. It is by His righteousness that we find remission of sins and reconciliation to God. It is then that we cast off the old corrupt man and “…put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24).” Then we live righteously according to the Word of God.
In this walk of faith, forgiveness, and righteousness, we then have confidence that not only does God hear our prayers, but we may believe that He will answer them.
Simply stated today, if you are a normal human being, you are called to a life of constant prayer. For that praying to be effective, you must have faith, be forgiven, forgive those in your life, and walk in the righteousness of Christ, living righteously according to the Word. IF you do this, then not only will God hear your prayers, you may be confident that He will answer them.
“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
