Prayers that avail much
Greetings to all my friends in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ! All the glory to my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ!
Prayers that avails much
James 5:16, ‘Confess your trespasses[e] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.’
Through prayers, we talk to the heavenly Father. Though they are called by several names, like prayers of faith, prayers of earnestness, prayers of effectiveness and fervency etc. Though all mean almost the same, yet we see a slight difference among them. James 5:16 talks about effective and fervent prayers that avails much. When we read the phrase ‘avails much’, we ought to understand that there are prayers that does not avail much. The literal meaning of ‘avail’ is ‘benefit’. If prayer is the labor invested, benefit is the returns expected. Prayers that avail much is termed as effective prayers. Prayers don’t become effective by increasing the number of words or even the time. Their effectiveness is based on its ‘fervency’ and the righteousness of the platforms of the hearts from which they arise.
Gen.20:17-18, ‘ So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; 18 for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.’ Abraham was called ‘God’s friend’. Yet, at some points of his time, we see him doing things out of fear of man. His wife, Sarah was a beautiful lady, even at her old age. Abraham feared that the people would kill him and take Sarah away on account of her beauty (Gen.12:11-13). We see in Gen.12 how Abraham and Sarah journeyed to Egypt from Canaan, to escape the famine of the land. As this journey was lead by the thought of escaping the famine rather than by God Himself, we see Abraham encountering fear of man. To escape this, he convinces Sarah to be called as his sister instead of his wife before the Egyptians. One willful sin leads to a network of sins. God’s mercy rescued this family from the hands of Pharaoh and they returned to Canaan. But this fear continued to lurk in Abraham’s heart when even later when they moved to Gerar. Abraham repeated the mistake of introducing Sarah as his sister to the Abimelech, the king of Gerar. And here too, the Lord intervened to rescue this divinely favored family. Gen.20:9-13 records the conversation between Abraham, who was righteous in the sight of God and Abimelech, the King of Gerar, who was stopped by divine hands from committing a serious sin. This passage wonderfully expresses their confession of their fears and faults to each other. Soon after this, Abraham prayed for the household of King Abimelech, whom God had judged. Gen.20:18 reveals what Abraham had prayed for. He had prayed for the healing of all the wombs in the house of Abimelech, whom God had closed on account of Sarah being taken into King Abimelech’s custody. Abraham confessed his fears and faults openly before a heathen King without any hesitation. Thus he bore fruits of humbleness and righteousness. 2ndly, he prayed with a burning plea for opening of wombs and bearing of children. This was something for which he himself was waiting earnestly since years and years. But here, blessing of King Abimelechs house was more important for Abraham than his own house. We see here a selfless heart praying fervently, understanding the pain of closed wombs and barrenness. No pain could bind Abraham from expressing God’s love for this heathen family. The wife and maidservants of King Abimelech were healed and bore children. And in the very next verses, we see that the Lord opened the dead womb of 90 years old Sarah for His promised seed (Gen.21:1-2). Effectiveness is witnessed here by a whole new generation of new born babies in the house of King Abimelech. Effectiveness is witnessed here by the fulfillment of the much awaited God’s promised seed to Abraham who had not prayed for himself here.
The phrase, ‘Confess your trespasses[e] to one another’ in James 5 is amazing indeed. Usually, we believe in confessing our faults to the Lord who knows us in and out. And often we don’t hesitate doing it. But here, James stresses on confessing our trespasses to one another. This refers to the trespasses done against each other. This requires much more humbleness as it might destroy the ‘holy’ look created in others minds around us. The testimonies of men about us are often more important than the testimonies of God about us. This attitude hinders us from praying effective prayers. Let the verse in Rom.7:18, ‘For I know that in me dwelleth no good thing…’ be our heart’s confession.
Job 42:10, ‘And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.’ Here, we see yet another person, Job who when prayed for his friends, found himself being turned from the captivity. Job prayed for the forgiveness of his friends who had not spoken right about the Lord and who would have been dealt by the divine hands for their folly (Job 42:8). Job interceded for them, from whom he had expected such intercessions for himself while he was in pain. Job 16:20-21, ‘My friends scorn me; My eyes pour out tears to God. 21 Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, As a man pleads for his neighbor.’ But all he received from them was scorning and hurting words. Job here does not hesitate to cry out for his friends. Here, this was more important than the restoration of his own blessings. Job had realized his own sinfulness before the Holy God (Job42:5-6). He had received forgiveness from heaven. He was accepted by the Lord (Job 42:8). The one who is accepted by heavens, greatly desires the same for all around them. That’s why the heart of a God’s child pains when he or she meets someone who is not. No matter what the unrighteous person might have done or said, the only passion of God’s child is to see all souls being forgiven and accepted by heaven. And this begins from self. When we forgive those who hurt us and intercede for them with all our heart, we see them being forgiven and blessed by the Lord. Our Lord prayed for those who crucified Him and for all of us on the cross even while we continued to sin, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” The word of ‘retaliation’ or ‘hurt’ or ‘resentment’ cannot be seen in the dictionary of a truly righteous person, who is washed by the blood of the lamb. The truth is that if any of these do exist in any corner of our hearts, the heaven disqualifies us from the role of intercession and from the post of being righteous. Job forgave his friends and prayed for them. This prayer availed much and was effective. His friends were forgiven and Job himself was given twice as much he had before by the Lord, though he had not prayed for himself.
A prayer is said to avail much when both, the persons prayed for are blessed through the prayers offered for them and the one who prays is blessed too without being prayed for. For such effective prayers, our hearts should easily forgive one and all who hurt us in any way, thus representing Christ . Lets know that nothing in our life happens without our Lord’s knowledge. And if anyone whom we love dearly has hurt us, that too is in His knowledge. And if the Lord has allowed it to happen in our lives, He has a purpose. And His purpose is always to prosper us, to train us and to build us up in His Word. Unless we encounter hurts and wounds, we cannot learn to forgive, just as a soldier cannot learn to fight unless he encounters wars. And unless we learn to forgive, we will not realize the great blessedness of being forgiven by heaven and the precious value of His holy blood shed for our forgiveness. Praying sincerely for those who hurt us uproots any kind of hidden bitterness that might make us fall away from grace. Forgiveness does not have a past tense. Its always in present tense i.e. every day, we need to forgive all who have ever hurt us.
Abraham and Job were people who grew in God’s love even when they went through hard times. Hence, they could overcome every weapon of offense by loving and forgiving all willingly. Their blessings could not be hindered by any power. They received what the heaven allotted them. Lets not hesitate to confess our faults to one another. Loosing one’s testimony from the world around is better than loosing one’s testimony from our heavenly Father. None of us are perfect. We all have a short lives on this earth. Months and years are passing by fast. As we head towards our destination of our faith race, lets accept each other by forgiving each other. Thus can we pray effective prayers that avail much. Thus can we see others and ourselves being blessed through prayers and intercessions. May our prayers avail much.
God bless us all
0 Comments:
Post a Comment