Effective means for it to work for its intended purpose.
Like your car,
your refrigerator,
and your dryer.
We don't continue to use things that don't work.
The Bible talks about how to pray prayers that work.
Like in James...
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.
In Acts 2: 1-18, there is a story of a prayer that was effective and worked.
Acts 12:1-18 (NKJV)
12:1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.
12:2 Then he (Herod)killed James the brother of John with the sword.
12:3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he (Herod) proceeded further to seize Peter also.
Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
12:4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.
12:5 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
Effective prayer is constant, which means that it doesn't give up.
12:6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.
In John 21:18-19, Peter had Jesus' word that he would live to old ago, so he slept like a baby in prison.
Prayers that are effective are based upon the Word of God and His promises for you contained within it.
12:7 Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying,
“Arise quickly!”
And his chains fell off his hands.
The answer to effective prayers find us when we are resting in the trustworthiness of God and His promises.
12:8 Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did.
And he said to him,
“Put on your garment and follow me.”
Answers to effective prayers happen when we immediately follow God's guidance moment by moment and step by step as He prompts us.
12:9 So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
12:10 When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
God sees a way out of our circumstances that is not readily apparent to others, and not even to ourselves sometimes.
12:11 And when Peter had come to himself, he said,
“Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.”
Peter had a habit of looking at his life from God's viewpoint.
When everything is against you, God is for you.
God's view point impacted Peter's thinking.
12:12 So, when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
Peter was drawn to people of prayer in his time of need.
He had a community of prayer.
Peter had a habit of praying with others.
12:13 And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer.
12:14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.
You can't measure the maturity of a believer by their age.
Rhoda had listened to Peter's voice enough to know it.
She was quick to believe, and was thrilled before she actually saw him.
12:15 But they said to her,
“You are beside yourself!”
Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, “It is his angel.”
She would not allow unbelieving Christians to rob her of her faith.
She stood firm in what she knew.
She stood firm in what she knew.
12:16 Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
They were astonished because of their unbelieving prayers.
The prayers were answered because of Peter's faith in Jesus' word, and a little girl named Rhoda.
12:17 But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he (Peter) declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison.
And he said, “Go, tell these things to James and to the brethren.”
And he departed and went to another place.
Use your answered prayers to make Jesus famous, and to encourage faith in others.
12:18 Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.
Don't allow yourself to be on the other side of God's power and faith in Him.
Ingredients of Effective Prayer
1.Pray where there is pressure, prompting,or pain.
Psalm 18:6 (NKJV)
In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.
God has ears.
We have to pray through our pain to get to His perspective and to strengthen our resolute faith in Him.
2. Pray With Passion.
Hebrews 5:7-9 (NKJV) Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
and having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
We meet God one step out of our comfort zone.
When you listen to yourself pray, do you pray with passion, a deep reverence of God, and a will totally surrendered to God like Jesus?
3. Pray with persistence.
Jonah 2:1 (NKJV) Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.
The fish was sent to preserve Jonah's live.
If Jonah can pray to God while he was being digested by a great fish,
you too can pray to God in your situation with the persistence of Jonah.
Desperation builds your relationship with God.
4. In partnership with others.
Matthew 18:19 (NKJV) “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
5. Focused on the person of Jesus Christ in prayer.
John 14:13-14 (NKJV)
13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
We are to pray to God the Father in Jesus name, or on His behalf.
Ask Jesus first, what are you praying for me in my circumstances?
Remember,everything bows to the name of Jesus.
Everyone is trying to make a name for themselves.
We already have the name that works on both heaven and earth.
If you haven't done so, bow your knee and surrender yourself to God in Jesus name.
He can hear you.
Excerpts taken from notes of Dino Rizzo, Church of the Highlands.
No comments:
Post a Comment