Prayer
is the means by which weak and frail men tap into the boundless power of
an Almighty God. There is "nothing too hard" for God
(Jeremiah 32:17).
He is "able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us"
(Ephesians 3:20).
Despite this, there are Christians who have little confidence in their
prayers. They may know their responsibility to pray
(1 Thessalonians
5:17), but they do not feel that their prayers have much effect.
Perhaps this is the way you view your own prayers. What can be done to
make our prayers more effective, powerful and life-changing? Try the
following:
Pray Before All Else Fails
All too
often, we use prayer as a last resort. We try everything under the sun
to solve our own problems, allow those problems to overwhelm us, and
then we think to call upon God. In
Psalms 63:1,
David said, "O God, You are my God; early will I seek You." Note the
word "early." We need to realize that the first and best solution to
every problem is to seek God's help. We need to give it to God before
it overwhelms us! "For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to
You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters
They shall not come near him"
(Psalms 32:6).
Lincoln once said, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the
overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." If we'd start
with that mindset, we might be amazed at how effective prayer suddenly
becomes for us.
Pray in Faith
We need
to understand not only that God has the power to give us what we need,
but also that He wants to give it! When we ask God for anything
according to His will, He hears us
(1 John 5:14).
If we do not trust that He has our best interest at heart, or
that He has the power to grant our requests, it does little good to ask
Him. James commands that we "ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who
doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let
not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord" (James
1:6-7).
Work to make it happen
Faith
without works is dead
(James 2:26).
If we are praying in faith, we will work to make our prayer happen.
Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became one of the most
eloquent voices for freeing the slaves in the years leading up to the
War Between the States; Douglass once said, "I prayed for twenty years
(for my freedom) but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
We need to pray as if everything depended on God and work as if
everything depended upon us.
Live a Righteous Life
James 5:16
says, "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."
God listens to people who listen to Him. "The eyes of the Lord are on
the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of
the Lord is against those who do evil."
(1 Peter 3:12).
But God does not listen to those who pay Him no attention. "One
who turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an
abomination"
(Proverbs 28:9).
Your
prayers can be powerful! "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and
you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be
opened" (Matthew
7:7-8).
Other Articles by Steve Klein
Doing Odd Things to Get Even
Are You Tired of Doing the Right Thing?
How Men Act When They Repent