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AUTHENTIC PRAYER

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! Then he prayed for rain, and down it poured. The grass turned green, and the crops began to grow again. – James 5:16-18 (NLT)

            Imagine praying for something and actually expecting God to answer! What a change that would be for many of us who claim to believe in prayer, yet deep in our hearts do not really expect anything to happen when we pray. The fact is, when we offer up our requests to God, it is really God who hears, and responds to our petition.

            In the context of a prayer for spiritual and perhaps, physical healing, James gives the example of Elijah. Elijah was just a person like you or me, yet he believed that God would respond to his prayer. And what a prayer it was! Who among us would dare to pray such a prayer? Many of us have trouble believing that God will grant us our daily bread let alone change the weather patterns! There are two keys here to authentic prayer: 1) A righteous heart; 2) Faith that God can answer.

PRAYER THOUGHT: Father, give me the purity of heart and the power of faith that is necessary. I believe in You.