Powerful and Effective Prayer
September 28, 2003
James 5:16-17
16th Sunday after Pentecost
Galena-Warwick United Methodist Charge
Warwick & Galena, Maryland
Rev. Dr. Lawrence D. Jameson
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James 5:16b - 17a
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and
effective.
Elijah was a man just like us.
We all want powerful and effective prayer.
Wouldn’t it be great
if we could pray like Elijah?
Elijah was one of the greatest miracle workers
in the Old Testament.
Lots of wonderful things happened when Elijah prayed.
Can you imagine what this church would be like
if we had
200 Elijahs kneeling to pray?
We would see miracles and wonders.
We would see the power of God come down.
Hear the good news.
In James 5:17 the Bible says,
“Elijah was a man just like us.”
He was a sinner too.
He had his problems, and his hang-ups just like you and me.
Yet somehow, God chose to answer Elijah’s prayers.
I love this verse of the Bible.
This verse give me comfort, and hope.
And I’m not the only one.
Lots of preachers, and Bible commentators
have seen the significance of this little verse.
James 5:17 is a wonderful verse!
“Elijah was a man just like us.”
God listens to people just like us.
God answers our prayers.
He made every one of us,
and he listens to every one of us.
There has to be a catch.
OK, let’s look at that.
Sure there are qualifications.
Here it is: James 5:16
The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
You might say,
“Aha! The Bible says you have to be righteous
in order to have powerful and effective prayer.
Well, that leaves me out!
I’m just a sinner. I’m not righteous at all.”
That’s only partly true.
It’s true we are all sinners,
but every Christian,
EVERY CHRISTIAN has access to God’s righteousness.
The prayer of a righteous man IS powerful and effective.
What is righteousness?
Righteousness is a right relationship with God.
It is what every Christian has
when we keep the lines of communication open
and our heart in tune with the Lord.
When we pray,
we include confession
because we are prone to sin.
A good description Christian righteousness
can be found in 1 John 1:5-10.
5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in
him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet
walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins
and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we
make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
The Apostle John called it “walking in the light”.
I call it just your normal, everyday, average Christian life.
After you accept Jesus into your heart,
and he is in there,
you can do the things necessary
to make him comfortable.
You can pray. You can confess your sins.
You can accept his forgiveness every day.
And you can walk in the light.
When you do that,
you have righteousness.
It is not a righteousness that you earn.
The righteousness DOES NOT COME FROM YOU.
The righteousness is a benefit of your relationship with God.
Theologians call it “imputed righteousness.”
I like that funny term. It makes sense.
The dictionary says that to impute means
to consider, attribute, or ascribe.
God looks at us,
and knows we are sinners
and we are prone to sin.
But when we repent,
and ask for forgiveness
he does three things:
1) he forgives us
2) he cleanses us
3) he imputes to us his own righteousness
We don’t deserve it.
We can’t earn it.
We could never ever
be good enough to achieve this on our own.
So God steps closer to us and gives us access
to what we could never have otherwise:
His presence, His love, His righteousness.
The Bible uses the image of a white robe
to describe righteousness.
We read about that in Isaiah 61:10
I delight greatly in the LORD ;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.
Whenever you stop and pray,
and make things right with the Lord
God imputes his righteousness to you
and it’s like he takes a robe
and slips it over your shoulders.
Because God is near,
your prayers will be effective and powerful,
just like the prophet Elijah.
Imputed righteousness
is what made Elijah a successful prophet,
an effective miracle worker,
and a mighty man of God.
And imputed righteousness
is what you and I get
every time we kneel down before our mighty God.
Give me some of that!
In James 5:17 the Bible says,
“Elijah was a man just like us.”
He was a sinner too.
He had his problems, and his hang-ups just like you and me.
Yet somehow, God chose to answer Elijah’s prayers.
James 5:17 is a wonderful verse!
“Elijah was a man just like us.”
God listens to people just like us.
God answers our prayers.