Skip to main content

I'm Only Human ... Too

Do you know someone who always seems to be sharing answers to his or her prayers? When was the last time you had one prayer answered? When it has been awhile it can sure seem like the heavens are closed. Especially when others are sharing God is answering.

Read James 5:17-18 and then ask yourself, "How hard can it be to pray?"

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

Let's face it, some prayers are more powerful and effective than others. Powerful prayers are obviously those that work, and effective prayers mean those that work the right way.

James says powerful and effective prayers come from a certain type of person = a righteous person. So it seems fit to ask, when my prayers are not answered, "Am I not a righteous person?" I must not be. *cricket *cricket *cricket

Elijah must have been a superhuman being! A Superman among us. His prayers were legendary! He prayed that it wouldn't rain and it didn't for 3.5 years! [A period of judgment like in Revelation]

Then Elijah prays again and IT RAINS! WOW! A direct line to God's ears!

But James describes Elijah as a human being just like you. JUST LIKE YOU! Well, if you are a human being. Why do you think James seeks to point this out?

Elijah prayed "earnestly" that it would not rain. Do I pray earnestly? His prayers closed heaven and earth bore no fruit.

Do you really believe you can pray like Elijah? What if you all of a sudden could?

What would the heavens being opened and the earth bearing fruit look like in a spiritual sense? When we pray, we want the heavens opened and the earth to bear fruit--that is God’s answer and we live under His goodness.

Are you needing the heavens opened on something? Or the earth to bear fruit?

Maybe you have some false beliefs about prayers? Prayers answered might mean to you that you are living right and prayers not answered mean you are living wrong, or God is punishing you when your prayers are not answered. This is looking at God like He is your vending machine to my prayers.

Sometimes people think, "I could never pray, prayer is for older Christians." When we had our newborn Josh come into our home, Melissa and I wanted to communicate with him as fast as we could. We wanted the baby to know we loved him and we wanted him to communicate back to us. Talking is not for the old. Talking is for everyone. And once get a baby talking he can grow by leaps and bounds. Communication is a vital aspect of life.

When it comes to you and prayer, consider some final questions to ponder:

  • If you had to guess, what would you say is holding you back in your prayer life? 
  • “No time” is not a good enough answer-- it’s too easy and convenient, “not enough time” is a symptom of deeper issues—go there and talk with God about it!
  • If we say, “I guess it is not important” then we are believing a lie because we really do believe prayer is important. 
  • If we say we don't know how to pray, this is getting closer to the truth and can actually be helped.
What do you think of when you think of praying? It is a VERY important question. Slow it down, and think:

  • What comes into your mind when you begin to pray? Before you even say a word?
  • We often think about God and that is important
  • What God must be thinking about us is also important.Very important! Both thoughts must be grounded in the truth! That’s righteous praying.

I hope you take something away with you today from this reading. I hope you had something changed in your thinking that you will keep thinking about.

Whatever it takes, ALWAYS have a take away!

Would you spend some time in Elijah praying for one another’s requests today!
Don’t hold back in your praying!
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Banning Influencers at Church?

 You might be getting The Pour Over into your inbox each day as I do. As I read one of the highlighted articles, Why are cafes, restaurants, and even towns banning influences ?  I thought of two things: A popular video game and the Church. The [Galactic Civ] video game action arena is space and utilizes exploring with several different tactics. One is cultural expansion deploying techniques for taking over the galaxy using mods to influence other traveling species with your culture and therefore "quietly" take over the galaxy and win the game. You could also win by buying up all of the other planets (economic takeover--think China?), or by hostile takeovers and warfare (think Russia?).  I like to use the cultural takeover mostly these days. The article lists the reasons for the ban, one is logistical (small-town shops cannot handle triple+ visitors due to a rise in popularity resulting in more harm than good). I imagined a small church of older people spiking due to a popular
Read more

Revelation's Whore as Today's Culture

  https://thehustle.co/originals/why-you-almost-never-see-a-clock-at-the-mall The word “whore” may have different definitions to some, but I want to use it as a woman who markets herself for the sole purpose of robbing men of their life for her own gain--whatever her “gain” is: monetary, lust, or otherwise. She is the reverse-consumer and profiteer at the same time, a vampiress, a luxurious drunk, functioning alcoholic. Her appeal is a marketing scheme based on not just years of study, but an exquisite composition of research and development where she is both scientist and evidence, psychologist and client--in an endless cycle and sinister feedback loop of trial and error, hypothesis and investigation, feeding and consuming. All the while tricking you into believing you are the main character. But it isn’t about you. You have entered her Nirvana constructed for you to “remain inside” her. Once her legs are wrapped around you, she is sure to suck your life away. And as titillating a
Read more

Who you going to call?

I had a coworker who was a very-likeable person, but seemed in competition with everyone. He was a funny guy, I'll give him that, but most of the time engaged in rather shallow conversations. He knew a little about everything, which caused him to have an opinion about . . . well, everything. And his wit made you want to listen. Most of the time, it is a fun, light-hearted space to work in. Likeable people, are just that: likeable. There are several people I have worked with over the years like this--very friendly, likeable, fairly easy to talk to, yet never really wanted to go deeper. In fact, if conversation turned that way, they became uncomfortable and either remained silent, tried to change the subject, or simply left the circle.  We all need someone we can go deep with. This is the kind of person you'd want to tell others you know or ask if they do. They are not the kind of person you'd call if your spouse ended up in the hospital, or your parent died, or your kid was
Read more

Family Time Videos