Prayer

Prayer is one of those things that is so important to the Christian life, yet we get by so easily without doing it. I find that God has provided so much for me that I am really never in need of anything, but it is not because of my prayer life. It is times of need when we really fall to our knees and cry out for God to intercede. My friend Ryan called me last Friday and told me his brother Lucas has cancer and there is not much the doctors can do. It took something this urgent to get me on my knees before God, and I find myself wondering how much weight does my prayer even hold? Does not God have a plan in all this? And why would He change his plan just because I ask of him? If God has an ultimate plan and He doesn't make mistakes than what can I even say? James 5:13-18 talks about the prayer of faith. Vs 16 says, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. " Vs 17 goes on to talk about Elijah and how he prayed that it would not rain and it did not for 31/2 years. I want to focus on what vs 16 says about the righteous man. His prayer has great power. I was reading in Titus and chapter 1 talks about the qualifications of an elder. vs 7 says, "For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered or a drunkard or a violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it." These things that make a good steward of God are the same things that will make a righteous persons prayer full of power. This list was a qualification for elders, but it was not a special list of excessive good but rather a bare minimum. I want to challenge you to search your heart and make the changes you need to to become righteous so that your prayer will be powerful. I said at the beginning that I wondered how much weight my prayer held. It isn't about how much my prayer can hold, but rather how much my God can hold.