Effective Prayer!

I was reading through the last chapter of James' letter this morning, and his comments about Elijah grabbed my attention.  Here are the verses - James 5:16b-18 NIV:

[16]..."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. [18] Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops."

When I read those sentences I had two thoughts pop into my mind that I want to explore.  First, those three and a half years were a very uncomfortable time for Elijah.  Second, I was wondering if we really believe that we could pray and actually affect the weather patterns over a region for years?

The story of Elijah and the drought can be found in 1 Kings 17-18, and without going into the story in detail, suffice it to say that Elijah spent part of those three years, living by a brook and being fed by ravens until the stream dried up, and then lived with a widow who had just enough flour and oil every day to feed herself, her son and Elijah.  Secondly, because the Lord told him to announce the initial word to the King, Elijah was not held in high esteem by the king, and he was blamed for the drought.  The Lord used this drought to cause a major confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, and helped the people realize that God was truly the only God.  However, Elijah's life didn't become grand, in fact he become hunted by Jezebel (see 1 King 19: 1-2).

I believe the point of this is that we pray for change, but that doesn't mean that we will be unaffected.  Sometimes, it is easy to pray for things, as long as our life continues on as it is, but if we were to expect our prayers to affect us too, we might pray differently.  Secondly, not all our prayers will be received positively by others, and the question is if we will still pray them, if we know they will make us wanted individuals?  We may have such opportunities  in the near future, and even now our brothers and sisters in some of the western states in the US are under attack and being told they can't meet and worship.  This is not quite the same thing, but certainly related.  Soon we could be confronted with the choice as to if we will we pursue a Christian life-style even if its outlawed?

The second point of reflection from above, has to do with our belief about the power of prayer and God's Word.  In this case it was a prophecy that God told Elijah to release.  So the question for me this morning is if I believe that God still releases His word, that when spoken in partnership with Him, has the power to hold back rain, or produce rain?  Climate change is a big issue these days, and here is Elijah prophesying a drought that came to pass, and was so bad that all of the nation of Israel, and even surrounding countries were affected.  While that isn't global climate change, it certainly was for Israel.

In our agricultural center of the Mid-west, prayers for rain are pretty typical, and while we probably believe they make a difference, do we expect that they will make the kind of difference that those of Elijah made?  That is the point that James is making here.  He says that Elijah was a man just like us, and His prayers in unity with the Word of the Lord, made a multi-year difference in Israel.  James encourages us to believe the same about ourselves.  I know I often put Elijah and Elisha, or other great prophet of God on some sort of pedestal of holiness or something, but the truth is that they were just a man like me.  The power and authority rest with God, and the same is true today!  God can do exactly the same thing through me, or anyone else, for that matter.

So today I am encouraged to pray greater prayers, to seek God for His word to be proclaimed!  I am encouraged to carefully consider my prayers as well, knowing full well that I will be affected by them too.

May Your Word give us direction and purpose to prayer Lord!  We believe that you have the same power and authority today as You had back in Elijah's day!  We pray that You would show us who you are, that all people would say, "The Lord - He is God!  The Lord - He is God!" (1 Kings 18:39)

Amen and Amen!