PRAYER CHANGES THINGS

^" Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. 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 produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops." (James 5:13-18"

When it comes to trials and difficult times, many people often tend to throw in the towel before they even go to God in prayer. Prayer is intimate communication with God. For many, the extent of their prayer life is at the dinner table or before they go to bed. The devil doesn’t mind those type of prayers because they go nowhere.

If we want to experience something powerful and new in our lives it will come through prayer. The powerful fervent prayer of a righteous man can do much. Prayer is not measured by its length; it is measured by its depth.  It has been said that faith moves mountains, but prayer moves God. Isn't it amazing that our prayers, whether grand and glorious or feeble and faint, can move the heart of God who created the universe.

What kind of person has an effective prayer? A righteous man, (a lover of God); if you want your prayers to be effective, you must first be a lover of God. What good will your prayer be on Sunday, if you go out and live your life the way you want to during the week? Effective prayer changes your character. You no longer desire to do the things you used to do. You no longer want to satisfy your own desires (Prov. 15:29). If you live your life to please God, then God well make every effort to please you.

When it comes to prayer and trusting in God with our problems, we are either a thermometer or a thermostat. A thermometer is constantly changing depending on the circumstances. But a thermostat gets set and stays set. Instead of letting the weather control the temperature, the thermostat stays in control. When it comes to the temperature of the room, the thermostat has control. It doesn’t matter what the temperature it stays constant. 

Sometimes in life we face heat from other people. We often get hot under the collar, but if we are like a thermostat, then we are in control. The circumstances don't control us, we control the circumstances. Are you are a thermometer, allowing the circumstances to control you or are you a thermostat who always remains in control, in spite of the circumstances that surround you? You see, tough times don't last, but tough people do. And when the tough times come, character is what is revealed. 

If you feel discouraged, take it to God in prayer. If you feel stressed out, take it to the Lord in prayer. If you feel alone, take it to the Lord in prayer. Prayer changes things. When we put our trust in God and not in ourselves, then we are redirecting our faith. Prayer changes our faith. (James 5:17, 18)

Our children never come to us and tell us, "Dad, I'm really worried about this month's bills. I know we kind of had some unexpected bills come up lately and were kind of short. Do you think we're going to make it?" No, they don’t worry about those things. They got other things on their mind. They leave those things up to their parents.

God tells us, present your needs to me. Give me your cares. Tell me what's on your heart and I'll take care of them. God says, "Let me take your worries away" (Phil. 4:6).  We can trust God to meet our needs. We don't have to worry about the big stuff; we give those to the Lord. He is our heavenly Father! What do we do when we pray? We turn our care into prayer! Through prayer, we Glorify God, give God control, acknowledge His Lordship and receive His blessings. Our faith in God is increase to another level, when we pray.

An example of this is found in the Old Testament character of Nehemiah. Nehemiah saw a need. The walls of the city of Jerusalem were torn down. Nehemiah fasted and prayed. He sought the Lord concerning this matter. And then, he did something about it. God led Nehemiah to begin a building project. Nehemiah didn't sit around and do nothing. He prayed and then he acted upon it. Nehemiah wanted an answer from God, and then he became part of the answer. While some people become part of the problem, God wants us to be part of the solution.

"Oh, Lord meet the needs of our church." And yet we don’t give our tithe to support the church we pray for. We must pray and then be a part of the solution. "Oh, Lord bless our church. But you don’t do anything to help the church grow. It is time to be a part of the solution. We must not only pray for new souls, we must go out and bring them in. When we pray, God gives us instruction, and we must act upon those instructions or our prayer will not be fulfilled. It is called obedience.

You can pray, "Oh, God I'm short of finances, please work a miracle in my finances." The Lord says, "Tithe!"  "Oh, Lord I can't afford to tithe right now, but I really need a financial miracle." All the praying in the world won't get you your financial miracle, but tithing will. All the praying in the world won't get you your miracle, but obedience will. What does prayer do? Prayer activates our faith. Faith without works is dead!  Prayer changes things. There must be fervency in our prayer. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire, if there is no fire in our prayers."

Our understanding is limited to our vision. But when our understanding becomes God's understanding, our vision is expanded. We see things differently. Not by our own eyes, but through His eyes. Prayer changes our vision. We no longer think like ourselves, but rather, we have the mind of Christ.

We can read books and get counseling to correct our spiritual vision, but nothing works like prayer. Our vision is limited. But when we close our eyes and pray, we see things through God's eyes. When we don't pray, our vision stays narrow, and we stay in our own limited perspective. The best vision we could have is when we close our eyes and pray. When we close our eyes, we take on the mind of Christ, and our vision is multiplied.

Prayer corrects our vision. I no longer remain narrow-minded. Have you ever run across a narrow minded person? They have one way of thinking and it's almost impossible to change their perspective. The problem is that they refuse to let go of their own vision and take on God's vision. They refuse to close their eyes, and close their own perspective to see God's.

Prayer changes our character. Prayer changes our faith. Prayer changes our vision. Prayer indeed changes things. The saint who wages war against the devil fights best on his knees.

If I were to ask the question, "How many of you believe that you need to spend more time in prayer?” Everyone would raise their hand. If we know that we need to increase our prayer efforts, then why do so few of us actually do it?  What is the problem? We want to pray, but we don’t plan to pray.