Biblical Building Block #23 ~ Pray One For Another (James 5:16) PART 3

Today’s devotion is an excerpt from a Bible Study Series taught at Fellowship Baptist Church, titled “Biblical Building Blocks for Strengthening Relationships.”

Biblical Building Block #23 ~ Pray One For Another (James 5:16) PART 3

James 5:16, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Prayer is communication with the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, who loves us and invites us into His presence to receive grace. Pastors today are under a lot of pressure to build their churches through “proven” church growth methods. Thousands of pastors flock to seminars to learn how to attract seekers and build a “successful” church. E. M. Bounds, “What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. Prayer can do anything that God can do.”

1. Confidence:
Knowing that our prayers touch the heart of our loving Father in Heaven and that He can meet any need, we should be confident that He will hear and answer when we cry out to Him. When a person is living for Jesus that person is able to sense the heart and will of Jesus and thus prays according to the will of God. When we pray according to the will of God, we will see great things happen for God’s glory. We are to consecrate ourselves in prayer as we pray for forgiveness and as we pray with fervency. James teaches us that when a righteous child of God prays fervently it accomplishes much.

Back in 2004, my wife and I helped start a Christian school. One morning in 2004, we had gotten off to a late start. We knew we were going to leave our house later than normal, but it didn’t prevent us from praying before we left. Praying before we travel is something we have always done and still continue to do today. We did make one change that morning. Normally, I drive to school, but on that day, I had not prepared my morning devotion for the school, so I had asked Joy to do the driving so that I could work on my devotion. I asked Joy to pray. She happily agreed. Her prayer went something like this: “Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and the opportunity to serve you. Help Torey to complete his devotion for the students. Help us be a blessing and a godly example to the kids and help to arrive safe and not to get stopped at any traffic lights in Jesus name AMEN.” At that time, she really had my attention. How could she expect us to make it there without getting stopped at any red lights? Getting caught at red lights on the way to school was a guarantee. To travel this distance on morning traffic without getting stopped at a red light would be a miracle. The distance was 21 miles with 33 traffic lights. It was the equivalence of traveling on Highway 98 from Panama City to Panama City Beach without getting stopped at the lights. Where we currently serve there are no traffic lights in our city. We only have one traffic light in our entire county. When Joy began driving, the traffic light at Custer and State Line turned green before we reached the light. We also made it through the traffic light at Dorchester. I had hopes for Joy, but we always got caught at the intersection of Highway 51 and Highway 302. I must tell you how surprised I was that we made it through the light. Now we are on Goodman Road, also know as Highway 302. I like to call it the Goodman Road 500! Goodman Road during morning traffic is like a speedway. Everything was going just as Joy prayed and she always stopped to get her morning coffee, so why not now? She turned into the convenience store and minutes later walked out with her coffee. But now we were approaching five traffic light in less that half a mile. We would be approaching the overpass of Interstate 55 (I-55). When she made it through these five lights, I decided to stop writing and start paying attention to this prayer being answered. As we continued to school, she never, not once, was stopped at any of these 21 lights. When we arrived at school that morning, we arrived earlier that we have ever arrived before. In case you’re wondering what the devotion topic was that morning...it was on prayer. I was so excited and encouraged to explain how the Lord worked answered Joy’s specific prayer that morning. I pray this morning’s devotion was a blessing to you on the power of prayer. And how God really wants to answer your prayers. Have faith believing He will answer your prayers.

PRAYER: Father, I praise You that I can at anytime, anywhere, and under any circumstance come to You in prayer. My desire is to keep walking continually with You, so that my prayer may be the natural expression of my life with You. In Jesus name, AMEN.

Thank you for reading PART 3 of Biblical Building Block #23 of this series. Please visit this website tomorrow for Biblical Building Block #24 of this series.

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