Is this Working?

  Is this Working?

Matthew 6:9-13  James 5:16

What do you do when you have the feeling that your prayers aren’t working?

We have all experienced this at some point. Maybe you’ve prayed for someone for a really long time and they are still sick. Maybe you prayed you’d be able to stop a harmful, unholy habit but you slipped up again. Or maybe you’re praying for a friend or family member to come to know Jesus, and they are still really resistant.

Is it still worth it? James, Jesus’ brother, has something to say about these moments.

Pray…

Heavenly Father, I trust you. You are good and you do good. Even when I can’t see it and don’t feel it, I trust your love because you demonstrated it so clearly through Jesus. Jesus, thank you that you died for me, before I knew you or acknowledged you in any way. Thank you for your example of patient love. Holy Spirit, help me become more like Jesus. May the hard things I experience produce more perseverance in me. Thank you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Read…

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.James 5:16 ESV

Consider…

James is talking about the long game, and he is giving us the key to staying in it. Intercession isn’t a sprint. In other words, we have the wrong idea about this kind of prayer (and prayer in general) if we assume it’s a one-and-done deal. Intercession, especially, implies a continued coming.

Think back to our conversation about priests. It was literally their job to offer regular sacrifices on behalf of the Israelites. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we don’t have to do that anymore, but we are still invited to follow the model, as God’s royal priests, of coming to Him again and again on behalf of the people He’s placed in our lives. It’s part of what shapes us into the kind of people we are meant to be.

James reminds us that the power of prayer is not found in the outcome, but in the process. Think about the wind. While it’s whipping and blowing, we can feel its power. It’s having an effect on the things around us. But when it calms down, sometimes it doesn’t look like anything has changed. Other times, you see all kinds of evidence in the environment of what the wind did. It’s kind of like that with prayer. It is powerful as it is working, but sometimes the evidence isn’t super clear. Trust the process.

One of the best ways to stay in the process, is to surround yourself with a confessional community—a group of people committed to bringing their honest struggles to the table. It’s in bringing things into the light that we find healing and hope to sustain us when it doesn’t feel like our prayers are getting through.

Have you ever felt like your prayers aren’t working? How did you push through those times? How did people help or not help in the process?

Practice…

Who do you need to pray with today? Who do you need to confess to?

Ask God to bring to mind the places and spaces in your heart that don’t yet look like Jesus. Share what God shows you with someone today. Invite them to pray with you over those parts of your life and theirs. Pray with the confidence that God is working, His Spirit is in you making you righteous, and there is healing on the other side of your vulnerability.

Listen…

As you finish praying today, create space for God to speak to you. Set your timer for five minutes and just be still and quiet, humbling yourself before your good King.

Ask Him to speak to you.

When you get distracted, come back to Jesus by praying the Lord’s Prayer, slowly, line-by-line, listening for the Holy Spirit to comfort and challenge you to take a step of obedience today.