- Cyndi Benson
- Inspirational
It was a fervent prayer this morning. One of those moments where the mouth opens and the abundance of the heart pours out. Energized, empowered words of faith. The kind of prayer that makes your head spin as you try to keep up with all the things flowing out. Thoughts of lips turning blue from a lack of oxygen come to mind as I recall that moment. I don't know why it amazes me, but it does. Moments of genuine spiritual intimacy are ours for the asking, yet we tend to let our "schedules" be dictated by the worlds standards and needs, not our own. You almost have to be OCD about it. Think of it this way. There is an order and process we each go through to get certain things done. We know that when you start a project, there are certain elements you must have, tools, ingredients, etc. You have to be prepared, you have to understand the time each steps take and you want to make sure that the end result is perfection. Does it always happen, no. However if we were to tithe the first fruits of our day, in other words, when we first wake up and we give that time to God, just imagine what He would do with the rest of the day.
Tithing our first fruits, our 10% if you were, is something we are taught in church. However, there is more than money to be tithed. Our time is valuable to God. We tend to fill it up with work, school, kids, soccer games, meetings and all the things we "Think" are important. We run around, rush to the store, run to this and that, and at the end of the day we are exhausted and can't figure out why the day sucked. (I do believe that "suck" is biblical for "without Gods direction. It's greek or something...work with me people).
If we were to start our day with God, asking the Holy Spirit to direct us. Asking God for His plan for the day, all the things we "thought" we HAD to do would pale in comparison to what HE wants done, AND our stuff would miraculously still get done.
James 5:16 "The effectual prayers of a fervent man availeth much."
This verse says it all.
Lets take the word "fervent". The dictionary defines fervent as "having or showing great warmth or intensity of spirit, feeling, enthusiasm etc."
So if our prayers are empassioned, because we are putting our whole being into it at the beginning of the day, we are saying "God, there is nothing more important to me than starting my day with you and these are things on my heart." The other key word here is "effectual". The dictionary defines this as
" producing or capable of producing an intended result or having a "striking" effect." Wow..just wait here a minute.
Think about this combination "effectual" and "Fervent". It is no coincidence that James put these two together in the same sentence. If our prayers are empassioned, empowered to have a "striking effect"...Just WOW! Thats as if our prayers were some huge firework display complete with all the bangs pops booms ooo's and aaahhh's! That is saying that those are the prayers that gets God's attention! He knows when he sees that kind of passion, urgency and determination in a prayer, that it is real and sincere. However, lets remember one last word in that verse..."righteous" This is defined as free from evil or guilt. an innocent child. it is an adjective describing the moral state of a person."
So if we look at this clearly, if we want our prayers to have that WOW effect, if you want to make God take notice, we have to be righteous free from sin AND guilt, meaning, not only are we making the choice to not do things we know are not pleasing to God, we also have to NOT allow the enemy to condemn us for things that God has ALREADY forgiven us for. It is then and only then that our empassioned, empowered prayers are truly "WOW" moments for God.
Now you might think, "whew Dave, that's a lot to ask of me when I haven't had my coffee yet..." Suck it up cupcake. If we want to really walk the walk and not just talk the talk, then we have to put things into perspective. If we have sucky days because we only pray on an as needed basis, then we can't blame anyone else when our prayers don't seem to be answered. We need to make sure that we make God the first order of business. In that way, by entering into his presence with prayer, worship and supplication (big church buzz word meaning humbly or earnestly), He will hear our prayers. We may not always get the answer we want, but we will always get what we need.
God wants us to engage him everyday in every moment with every need and desire. When we know its going to be a tough day with life putting Huge draining demands, if we start the day with God, he will direct us through that days storm. We don't always need to come to him with a grocery list. Sometimes just being still and knowing that He is God will overwhelmingly meet and exceed ALL of our needs, real or imagined.
THAT'S the Grace and Strength Lifestyle!
Pray Seek Believe Receive
David Michael Rose
* Individual results may vary.
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