Articles
Effective Prayer
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).
