HOW TO PREVAIL IN PRAYER
(First part)
Memory verse: (James 5:16) “ Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much ”
How to prevail in prayer means ‘the way we pray to see great results’. So many people pray daily but not many get answers. The scripture above said that the prayer that avails much is the prayer that is fervent. Prayer is more than verbalizing empty words in a vacuum. Prayer is more than a mental activity; it’s more of a spiritual activity. People have had so many exhortations about the need to pray but still nothing much has been done to raise the church to its prayer position. These guides are not to serve to make you a professor of prayer, because the problem today is not that people don’t teach about prayer but that people are not praying. What God needs today is to see the church pray.
I don’t presume to be teaching you to pray, for the true prayer-teacher is the Holy Spirit (Rom8:26). But am just trying to remind ourselves that let’s get praying now. The best time to start praying is now. You’ll never start until you start. The best way to start praying is just to start. Just get started. There’s no better way to start than just starting now. How we pray determines the results we get. Two men went to pray, one a Pharisee another a sinner, the both prayed but the sinner was answered and the Pharisee not. The Philistines attacked Israel and Saul decided to go and pray to get answer from God but God never answered him (I Sam28:3-25). Abel gave a sacrifice to God and God answered him by sending fire to consume his sacrifice but Cain gave his sacrifice and God sent no fire. Men like Elijah made simple prayers that brought fire from Heaven. Israel spent many days praying but without answers from God, they thought you only need to open up your mouth and God answers, but it was not so. Until God told them, his mouth is not dumb that he can’t answer them, or his ear heavy that he can’t hear when they prayed. In fact in (Is 59:1-2) Children of Israel began to go beyond praying. They prayed and there was no answer, they decided to pray and fast. But no answer came. They began to complain to God why they could afflict themselves with fasting and God refused to listen to them. God‘s answer to them is a great lesson to people who would engage in the vocation of prayer (Is58:1-12)
How are we praying? Let us get some clues that will help become effective in our prayer business.
Tomorrow we will see: ‘ Praying fervently ’
