Fervent Prayer

Fervent Prayer
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”

James 5:16–18

Pastors frequently hear expressions of concern from people about their prayers not being answered. Of course the Bible gives us a number of reasons why that may be the case, but one of the most common problems is that too often we do not pray with the intensity and fervor we should. Most of the prayers recorded in Scripture were issued from broken hearts and fervent spirits. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus exemplified this. “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

R. A. Torrey said, “We hear much in our day of the rest of faith, but there is such a thing as the fight of faith in prayer as well as in effort. Those who would have us think that they have attained to some sublime height of faith and trust because they never know any agony of conflict or of prayer, have surely gotten beyond their Lord, and beyond the mightiest victors for God, both in effort and prayer, that the ages of Christian history have known. When we learn to come to God with an intensity of desire that wrings the soul, then shall we know a power in prayer that most of us do not know now.” When our prayers are fervent, there is a great impact on our lives and on the world.

Today's Growth Principle:
If we are not fervent in our praying, it should be no surprise that the answers do not come.