Title: Have You Considered Prayer As An Occupation?
Text:
Psalm 34:17 (ESV)
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.
James 5:13-18 (ESV)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 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. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
Observation:
Just before getting out of bed to come to my desk this morning I read an email on my phone from one of the subscribers to my email listing for this devotional. It was from a woman who was suffering because of sickness in her body.
She asked me to pray for her, and she cited a portion of a verse from James 5:16, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working".
What authority and what basis do I have to make prayer my occupation? How can anyone claim to be righteous?
1 John 2:2 (ESV)
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
God has given us the means, through the finished work of Jesus, to be people who are able to engage in prayer; all types of prayer.
Notice what Jesus said about prayer.
John 14:12 (ESV)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Oswald Chambers says, "Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work". Nothing is beyond the reach of prayer. Prayer works; let us pray.
Prayer:
Father God, my dear Father, I am so blessed to be able to come into Your presence, and ask for divine favor in the lives of those who have asked me to pray for them. Father, for the sick I ask for restoration of divine health. Father, I plead for each of those You have placed on my heart; mercy suites our case. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
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Matthew 4:4 (HCSB)
4 But He answered, "It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."
Psalm 2:8 (HCSB)
8 Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance and the ends of the earth Your possession.
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