Making room for Energizing and confronting prayer January 1, 2018

January 1, 2018

The effective prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much. James 5:16b NASB

Principle: Without connection to the power source – prayer is meaningless ramble.

One of the joys of Christmas is the installation of myriads of lights, well at least for the people who get to look at the finished product of someone’s time and effort.  A frustrating moment happens when you need to plug in another strand of lights only to find that there are no more sockets available.  Some strands have a connector at the end so you can keep adding lights.  But what do you do when you run out of space for another set of lights?  You can reroute some lights, unplug a set, or start a whole new power extension.

Many times, starting to become a prayer warrior is like adding another strand of lights.  There is no more room in your life.  Some stop at this point because they really don’t know what needs to be changed in order to start something new.  The issue is not whether prayer is important, will add value to your life, will be a good addition, or even if it is vital.  The problem most have is what to remove in order to make a place for prayer.  How do you adjust your time so that prayer now has a place of priority that it deserves?  For some, it will mean that you go to bed a little earlier so that you can arise earlier.  While it was still dark, Jesus would go to a lonely place to pray.  But for some moms, it may be when the children nap or are away at school that you can find a regular time for prayer.  Others may find that taking the last part of the night to settle down and quiet their soul works best.  But you can’t add something new of importance without identifying what needs to go. 

This principle of deletion and addition is also true of organizations.  To add something new into your pattern of work will require moving things around.  To make prayer central at church will mean that another program or night event be changed.  I can already feel the tension of telling someone that a prayer night is being added once a month and most groan or schedule their lives to be busy that night.  How does your church reflect the priority of prayer?

Our verse for today gives a little insight and hope for prayer to be meaningful and productive.  The word effective is energoumenē in the Greek.  If you see the root for energy in that word you would be correct. The HELPS word study explains it like this -  properly, energize, working in a situation which brings it from one stage (point) to the next, like an electrical current energizing a wire, bringing it to a shining light bulb. Effective prayer is energizing prayer.  It is presenting our request to God so that he can move it from one stage to another with His power at work.  Our part is not the abundance of words, nor the dramatization of our need.  Our part is to connect our needs to the source of power that can change.  Ask God how he can “energize” your prayer time.

The word accomplishes or prevails is ischuo.  HELPS word study properly, embodied strength that "gets into the fray" (action), i.e. engaging the resistance. For the believer, 2480(isxýō) refers to the Lord strengthening them with combative, confrontive force to achieve all He gives faith for. 

This word combines work and action.  You can see from the definition the warfare examples, “engaging the resistance, combative, confrontive force”.  In other words, our energizing prayer will require action to get into the middle of our request or need.  Another example for this word is the finished product of a tilled field.  Hard work is required to turn the dirt over and over to prepare the field for the harvest.  So also, prayer is the engagement of the work to see God’s will be done in the area of our concern.

If prayer was easy, everyone would be a prayer warrior.  Prayer works, because prayer is work.  But it is a work that accomplishes and moves forward our concerns.

Let’s bring all of this together for encouragement.  

The energizing prayer of a righteous person acts to engage the resistance to bring forth much change. 

Our prayer for today

Father, I admit that there is too much activity occurring in my life that has made prayer a lower priority on my schedule.  I am sorry for the inconsistency of what my mind knows should be the most important and what my time reveals is important to me.  Give me wisdom to know how to make the adjustments necessary for prayer to be the priority.  Do I watch less TV, read less media, listen to fewer songs, or adjust my exercise workouts?  I trust that you will show me how and when to make prayer a priority.

I also ask that you help me to connect with you so that my prayers have energy or are effective in producing what I am praying for.  Help me give you ALL the glory for answering prayers.  Only your power and authority can bring forth healing, change a heart or set someone free.

Father, engaging prayer means that I may have to confront the enemy to give back what he has stolen.  Engaging prayer means that I allow you to show me my hidden thoughts and motives that squelch the free-flowing life of the Holy Spirit in me.  Engaging prayer means that I am willing to battle for others who may not even know they need to be free.  Help me to persevere until the ground is fully tilled for you to use it.

Thanks for teaching me to pray.

In Jesus name, Amen