Four Weeks of Prayer
September 23,
2012
James 5:13-16
Are any among you suffering? They
should pray. Are any cheerful? They
should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call
for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with
oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and
the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be
forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one
another, so that you may be healed. The
prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
Prayer is absolutely important in the life of a
Christian. It is a primary connection
point between our lives and God. Prayer
is unavoidable in life. We pray for
those who suffer, we pray for the sick, we pray for troubles in the lives of
people we care about, and we pray for our country and world. Our instinct is to go to God in times of
uncertainty or trouble. Yet life is more
than suffering, struggle, disease, and uncertainty. Life
is also full of joy, laughter, fun, excitement, anticipation, and wonder. God calls us to bring these things to him in
prayer as well. Prayer brings help
for the helpless and prayer brings indescribable joy to the joyful.
How much rejoicing do we do as part of our everyday
routine? It’s easy to focus on the
problems. Many of us are great problem
solvers. I wonder if we really know how
to have fun with the Lord. If we are
cheerful, we take it to God. He adds
power to our cheerfulness. He magnifies
our joy. He gets us energized and
excited about life. When we take our joy to the Lord we end up standing in awe of him. We end up amazed by his blessings, by what he
has done as is doing, and at how his love speaks into our lives.
I invite you to
spend at least 30 minutes every day for the next four weeks in prayer.
This sort of prayer will change our lives. This week let’s take our joys to the Lord. Let’s fill our week with praise, joy, and
awe. May God show us how awesome he is.
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