Effective Prayer

Title: The Rich Rewards of Prayer

Text: “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16 RSV).

Scripture Reading: James 5:13–18

Introduction

If I can surmise our theme for 2023 it would be that we focused on prayer. Going into 2024 I will not let my foot off the gas because I want to be a praying church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said about prayer;

“Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one's heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Scripture teaches that those who have the habit of prayer experience rich spiritual blessings in their hearts and lives. Scripture and contemporary Christian history both testify that those who have served God significantly have been men and women with an earnest prayer life. History has it that James was such a man of prayer that he had calosus on his knees. Today we will look at some of the rich rewards that come to those who have faith in God that expresses itself in a life of prayer.

The righteous person gets a vivid awareness of the nearness of God.

“Draw near to God and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8 RSV). When the grateful and humble child of God seeks to come into the throne room of the heavenly Father, one of the great benefits that will come to him is a vivid awareness of the nearness of God.

Experiencing the nearness of God can be frightfully disturbing for one who has not experienced genuine repentance, sincere confession, and the joy of being cleansed from the pollution of sin Luke 5:8–10 says.

Luke 5:8-10 NIV

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Experiencing the nearness of God can also be very comforting (Ps. 23:4). He gives strength and help in times of difficulty.

Look at what the psalmist says about being near with God.

Psalm 23:4 NIV

4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Experiencing the nearness of God can be very exciting (Phil. 4:13).

There have been times in my walk with the Lord that I felt so close to Him that I was walking on the clouds with Him.

Philippians 4:13 says: I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

The assurance of the nearness of God can give great courage and joy as one faces the crises of life.

John Huss

Huss was a Czech priest who was burned at the stake for heresy against the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Particularly he fought against the doctrines of Ecclesiology and the Eucharist as taught by the Roman Catholic Church. He was an early reformer living before the time of Luther and Calvin (other well-known reformers of Roman Catholicism).

Huss was martyred on July 6, 1415. He refused to recant his position of the charges that were brought against him. On the day he died he is said to have stated, “God is my witness that the things charged against me I never preached. In the same truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached, drawing upon the sayings and positions of the holy doctors, I am ready to die today.”

A vital experience of the dearness of God.

Jesus taught his disciples to approach the Creator God not on the basis of his being their Creator but in terms of his being “our Father who art in heaven” (Matt. 6:9).

While he is the God who is in heaven, he is also the Father with whom we can have dialogue in the closet of prayer (v. 6).

Matthew 6:6

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

It is in the prayer experience that the Father communicates his nearness and his dearness to those who look to him in faith and trust.

An enlightening experience of the wisdom of God (James 1:5–8).

Throughout the length and breadth of Holy Scripture and in the experience of the saints, we have testimony after testimony of how, as they prayed, God stimulated their thinking and caused them to have new insight that helped them to cope with the strains and pressures of life.

Acts 6-7 The stoning of Stephan is a great reminder of how he faced death for his faith.

We have instance after instance in which God recalled to the memory of his discouraged children his goodness in the past to help them face the pressures of the present

.

We get an enabling experience of the strength of God through the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 40:29-31 says:

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Time spent in God’s presence fills the child of God with the strength that comes from heaven.

Many are familiar with the famous cartoon character Popeye. He faced many difficult and dangerous crises but was never adequate for these until he had eaten a can of spinach, which gave him superhuman powers.

This makes me think, how time spent with the heavenly Father brings to his children strength comparable to that which the spinach brought to Popeye.

The apostle Paul prayed for the believers at Ephesus that they might be strengthened with might through God’s Spirit in the inner man and that they might be filled with all of the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16,19).

Ephesians 3:16 (NIV): I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

Ephesians 3:19 (NIV): and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

He encouraged them to trust in and depend on the God who was at work“within them and who was able to do far more abundantly than anything they had previously asked for or even thought about (vv. 20–21).

A righteous person gets a cleansing experience of the forgiveness of God (1 John 1:6—7).

1 John 1:6-7

6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

God is eager to forgive his sinful children.

He is eager to cleanse us and make us as white as snow.

Our heavenly Father does not delight in our being guilty of or burdened by sin.

He is“eager that we forsake those ways and attitudes that are destructive and come to him for forgiveness and cleansing.

Scripture tells us that our God is a forgiving God who forgives fully and freely and forever when his children sit in judgment on their own sins and turn from the sin that disrupts their fellowship, destroys their influence, and deprives them of joy.

Prayer is the divine gift by which we can come into God’s presence, receive his forgiveness, and experience both the cleanness that follows and the joy of a restored fellowship.

Conclusion

Do not rob yourself by neglecting to pray. When you do not feel like praying, that is all the more reason you should pray.

Prayer is not a process by which you make “brownie points” with God.

Prayer is not a magical means by which something happens automatically.

Prayer is meant to be an experience in which a spiritual transformation takes place.

This is why we are commanded, “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:16–18 RSV).