The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
James 5:16b Prayer takes us out of the average and brings us into the effective. It takes us out of a dreary existence and brings us into accomplishment. And the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. "Much" is a beautiful word—"much" is more than average; it's abundance and prosperity. Abundant is the life that God has called us to! (John 10:10).

I heard a preacher say that "the only true foundation for a Christian endeavor is prayer." I really believe that. As a believer, any of our endeavors are "Christian endeavors." So we ought to actively respond to the direction in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 to pray without ceasing—this is not a "have to" thing, but an effectual "get to" thing.

Prayer is that connection we have with God, which He instituted, so that we can draw near to Him and do Kingdom business in the way He has set up, by His divine decision. It's His means of doing things and including us in on things. We get to pray and see the results of our prayers—effective results that accomplish much!

You are going to see effectiveness and accomplishment in your life as you pray. There is effective prayer, which means that there is also the potential for ineffective prayer. If we want to be effective, we've got to look to the Bible and pray according to God's Word.

Stir up your heart for prayer. Don't let yourself get robbed of the effectiveness and accomplishment you are destined to obtain. The devil hates the idea of our praying. He'll try to disrupt it. He'll try to get us busy doing everything else. Or he'll try to get us wondering if our prayers are really effective. They are.

Press on in prayer!
Pastor Jeff



© 2007 St. Louis Family Church. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.