Back to the Classroom

Lately, I have felt that I needed to go back to the classroom where lessons about prayer are being taught.  It has seemed that I have been praying on a one way street, maybe even a dead end street.  Anyone who has ever grown through a time when prayers seemed to go no higher than the ceiling might understand.  In this season of struggle I have been reading James 5:13-18 which is one of my "go to" passages about prayer.  I have always found encouragement and inspiration in those words of James which say, " The prayer of faith will save the sick...pray for one another...the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective." 

 

As I continue praying in this season of struggle, I wonder.  Maybe I am not righteous.  But, then I know that such has always been true.  If I am tempted to think too highly of myself, I only have to remember Romans 9:10 which tells me "There is no one who is righteous, not even one."  But, I also know my being righteous is not dependent on me, but upon what God has done in my behalf through the death of His Son of the cross.  How grateful I am that God has made a way to look at me and see one He has made righteous instead of one who can never escape the weight of being a sinner.

What really has brought hope to me as I have reflected on the James passage are the words, "Elijah was a human being like us...(a man like me).  Being who I am is all I need to be in order to pray with effectiveness and power.  After all, God created me to be me just as He created you to be you.  And then, there is that Word from James 2:23 which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness..."  God's grace is more than great enough to take this meager faith of mine and transform it into something useful, even powerful and effective.  If God in His grace looks at our faith and reckons it as that which makes us righteous, then continuing to pray through a season of struggle is the only thing which makes sense.