CAN I PRAY EFFECTIVELY?

“The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 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. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (James 5:16-18, NKJV).

These are verses that I sometimes find myself being intimidated by, especially when I’ve been praying over a particular issue and there seems to be no answer forthcoming. The first sentence is challenging enough but then James adds the illustration of Elijah. He prayed and it didn’t rain for three and a half years and then he prayed again and “the heaven gave rain.” The part that is most intimidating to me is, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.” Really? When was the last time I prayed and it didn’t rain for forty-two months . . .  or even forty-two minutes?

Let’s take a look at these verses and see if we can’t find the keys that will help us to be more like Elijah in effective praying.

“The effective, fervent prayer” 

The word in the original for fervent is the Greek word “energeo,” from which we get the word energy. This word literally means “to put forth power.” This is speaking of prayer that is focused and passionate, not a generalized prayer, “Oh, Lord, bless everyone in Canada today.” This prayer is very focused and is a cry to God for something that matters to the person praying. James is speaking of intensity in prayer, of very strong pleading and crying out to God. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalms 34:6).

“Of a righteous man”

Righteousness is the primary key to effective praying and is not something that we can achieve on our own. We can’t make ourselves righteous. Going to church doesn’t make you righteous; reading your Bible doesn’t make you righteous; being a nice person doesn’t, either. We are righteous because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sin. The moment we acknowledge our need of Him as our Lord and Savior and ask for forgiveness of our sin, God declares that we have been made righteous by the shed blood of Christ. In other words, we stand in God’s courtroom and He declares us “not guilty,” not because of anything we have done but because of what Christ did for us! We are righteous because of the grace of God!

As a result of God’s declaring us righteous, when we pray He hears us! “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry” (Psalm 34:15, NKJV).

“Avails much”

The word “avails” finishes this statement James is making. In the Greek, the word avails is “energoumene” and again we recognize the word energy in this word. The Greek verb means “power that produces results.”

What is James saying? I believe he is saying that God always hears His children when they pray and He always answers. Perhaps the answer will not come exactly the way I want it to but it will come.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15, NKJV).

Why does James finish his thought on effective prayer by using the illustration of Elijah?

It is my personal belief that James was using a timeless literary technique called hyperbole to get our attention. Hyperbole is an obvious and intentional exaggeration and is used to draw attention to a story, a statement or a truth. It’s not that James was lying about Elijah’s prayers, it’s that he took an extreme example to grab our attention. The chances of any of us ever praying and shutting up the heavens for forty-two months is very remote (see 1 Kings 17 and 18).

James’ use of hyperbole is having the effect that he wanted it to have. Two thousand years later we are talking about the power of prayer and how one dedicated prayer warrior can make a difference. We are talking about how Elijah prayed this unusual prayer and God answered him.  The use of hyperbole draws us to reexamine a truth that, frankly, has fallen into disfavor with many. Much of the contemporary church has discarded as old-fashioned the truth that “prayer is powerful and that powerful prayer changes things!” Much of the contemporary church has put prayer in the closet and closed and locked the door. It’s time to bring prayer out of the closet!

I don’t have any idea what you are facing in your life, what your family is going through, but I do know what God’s Word teaches us. I do know the answers we have seen and are seeing in our impossible circumstances, answers that are coming through prevailing prayer.

“The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman or young person or a group) avails much.”