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The Prayer of a Good Person has a Powerful Effect
Lenten Lesson #1 February 17, 2016
Just like the disciplines of a good diet, exercise, and steady sleeping habits help to
keep our bodies strong and healthy, our spiritual health is also dependent upon
good, steady disciplines.
Making our journey through the Season of Lent, I proposed the last couple of
Sundays, a few key Bible texts that can encourage us:
Psalm 51:10 “create in me a pure heart”; as well as Deuteronomy 4:9 and
Galatians 6:1b, both of which commend us to “watch ourselves”. Meaning that
we need to keep a steady watch over our behaviors and words in hopes that they
are in line with godly ways.
As we begin our Wednesday evening Lenten Suppers and Studies, I would like to
propose that there are also five disciplines we can focus on, that can help us
strengthen our spiritual life. They are: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, study and
fellowship with the spirit and others. We’ll focus on one of these themes each
Wednesday evening and the sermon on the following Sunday will then elaborate
on that particular discipline.
I begin our Lenten Studies with prayer, because prayer is the single most
important discipline, which every conscious child of God can participate in!
I lift up the text of James 5:13-16, with an emphasis on the last portion verse 16:
(13) Is anyone among you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? He
should sing praises. [14] Is there anyone who is sick? He should send for the
church elders, who will pray for him and rub olive oil on him in the name of the
Lord. [15] This prayer made in faith will heal the sick person; the Lord will restore
him to health, and the sins he has committed will be forgiven. [16] So then,
confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be
healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect.
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As we take a look at our prayer life, we must ask two questions. The first one is:
“Do we pray often?” Creating the discipline of prayer is important and really
should be a part of our daily routine. As I Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us:
[16] Be joyful always, [17] pray at all times, [18] be thankful in
all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life
in union with Christ Jesus.
A father took his young son with him to town one day to run a few errands. When
it was lunch time, they went to a diner for a sandwich. The father sat down on
one of the stools at the counter and lifted his son up to the seat beside him. They
ordered lunch, and when the waitress brought the food, the father said, "Son,
we'll just have a silent prayer." The father finished his prayer first and waited for
the boy to finish his, but he just sat with his head bowed for an unusually long
time. When he finally looked up, his father asked him, "What were you praying
about that took so long?" With the innocence and honesty of a child, his son
replied, "How do I know? It was a silent prayer."
Our Daily Bread, December 12 Source: http://www.sermonillustrations.com/az/p/prayer.htm
The father wanted to exhibit for his son, the discipline of prayer, even in public
places, but maybe he a bit embarrassed about saying a prayer out loud in public,
as it made him feel a bit self-conscious. Thus, the silent prayer idea! But the
discipline of praying often, and during specific times such at mornings, evenings
and at mealtimes helps us keep a significant communication going between
ourselves and God, and helps our spiritual selves stay focused on spiritual
matters.
The second question is: “Do we believe in the power of prayer?” This one may be
harder to answer than we think. The perfunctory answer is to simply say, “Why of
course as a Christian, surely I believe in the power of prayer!” And we affirm this
when we get confirmation by prayers obviously answered. But what do we do
when prayers seem to go unanswered or when the answer isn’t what we are
hoping for?
Possibly a healthy and sound approach is to always seek in prayer for the singular
thing that Jesus himself asks us to pray to God for, even as he gives us the
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example of prayer in Matthew 6. You remember the beginning of the Lord’s
Prayer in the King James Version. Verse 9 begins with Jesus saying: “9 After this
manner therefore pray ye”. And we can say the next part together:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy
kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:9-10 (KJV)
That first part of the Lord’s Prayer is really a key element, I believe, in
experiencing a healthy and consistent prayer life in which we can truly believe in
the “power of prayer” – really believing that “the prayer of a good person has a
powerful effect” (James 5:16b). It centers on above all things – in our petitions,
let us pray that God’s will is achieved for God’s glory, knowing that God is
victorious over sin and death and that as we celebrate Christ as our Lord and
Savior, our greatest victory is already won, no matter what challenges we may
deal with in our daily lives. Let us pray that, with whatever happens, God will be
glorified in the end results!
So praying regularly and praying earnestly for the will of God are two great ways
to create a healthy discipline of prayer in our daily living.
Richard became an earnest member of a Tuesday evening prayer group at his
church. During one of those prayer meetings, his son’s name, Teddy, came to the
surface of his consciousness, bringing up painful memories of loss as he was well
aware that because of complications from a divorce he had not seen his son in
twenty-seven years. Yet, that Tuesday night Richard prayed earnestly, seeking
God’s will and presence in his son’s life, although he was not sure where he was
or what his life was like at the time! And a sense of peace overcame him as
Richard also claimed the text of Malachi 4:6 “He will turn the hearts of fathers to
their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.”
The Saturday after that Tuesday prayer meeting, Richard received a letter in the
mail and tears welled up in his eyes as he realized it was from his son, Teddy.
Teddy explained in the letter that he had decided to search the internet for his
father. The letter was one of 47 letters that Teddy had written to Richard
Whetstones all over the country. Then Richard realized that the postmark was
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the Wednesday after the Tuesday in which his son’s name had come into his
consciousness and Richard had proceeded to earnestly pray for his son.
A subsequent call to the number listed in Amarillo, Texas led to a conversation
and the exchange of two photos by mail – they happened to be the same photo
that the father and the son had both hung on to over the years. A photo of
Richard holding his infant son, not long before the divorce! Duplicate photos that
had been cherished by both the father and the son all through the years before
their reunion!
Of the experience, Richard comments that that Tuesday night prayer wasn’t the
only answered prayer through the course of his life, but certainly one of the most
wonderful and satisfying blessings to be reunited with his son!
So do we believe in the power of prayer? It is often only in the unfolding of years
in our lives that, like Richard, we really experience the blessing of answered
prayers in God’s own time and according to God’s will.
So here we are in the midst of the Season of Lent, and prayer really is one of the
key disciplines for us to exercise in the course of our daily living, by praying often
and by believing in the power of prayer. For as James 5:16 reminds us: “The
prayer of a good person has a powerful effect.”
We’ll be exploring more about the discipline of prayer during our sermon time
this coming Sunday as we ask the question: “What does Jesus teach us about
prayer?”
Blessings to each of you as the Season of Lent continues.
Pastor Dennis