Praying In Faith
Eternity Online: John Edmiston (Editor)
Eternity-Inspiration for Tuesday 23rd March 1998
(James 5:15-18 NKJV) And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and
the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be
forgiven. {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. {17} Elijah was a man with a nature like
ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not
rain on the land for three years and six months. {18} And he prayed
again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
Well what are the attributes of prayer that heals and prayer that
works miracles. Do you need to be an extraordinary sort of person?
No, not at all "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours," says the
apostle James and he meant it! The extraordinary thing is not the
nature of the pray-er but the faith the prayer is offered in. There
are seven aspects to faith that moves mountains and heals the sick -
most of them can be found in Hebrews 11.
1) Faith believes in the creative power of God.
2.) Faith believes in the invisible attributes of God.
3.) Faith believes that God is good and just.
4.) Faith believes that God rewards those who seek Him.
5) Faith believes what God says - particularly His promises.
6.) Faith waits patiently for the fulfilment.
7) Faith is sensitive to God's agenda.
To sum these things up - faith is man or woman who is totally at
God's disposal. If God promises - they believe, if God commands they
obey, if He calls, they go.
How can we then apply this to our daily ordinary prayer life?
Firstly if we are to pray in faith we should be flexible in our
praying and be prepared to adjust our agenda to God's agenda if it
should turn out that way. We are His servants - not the other way
around. Secondly we should be anchored in God and His word and have
a firm conviction that it is true - just as true as 2+2=4. Thirdly
when we have a definite and clear idea of what we are praying for
before God then we must pray persistently until we see it come true.
We must never give in. Prayer should never be offered with an
attitude of "maybe God will answer, maybe He won't" but a conviction
that He will! Faith is the certainty that God has heard us! (1 John
5:14-15 NKJV) Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that
if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. {15} And if we
know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we have asked of Him.
Prayer:
Father in Heaven we need to believe in You, we need to pray in faith,
we need to see our prayers answered more often. Help us to make this
come about more. Amen.
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John Edmiston ([email protected])
Editor - Eternity Online Magazine http://www.eternity-magazine.org/
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