November 21st

November 21st

Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops. (‭James‬ ‭5‬:‭13-18‬ NLT)

I love this passage in James. I love it because it challenges my faith. I love it because it spurs me on to better my prayer life. I have struggled with prayer for a long time. Bible reading and memorizing scripture I never really battled with. There were times that I just didn't read scripture, but with prayer, it is a struggle. It's not just the habit of it. It is something deeper, much deeper. I think my struggle with prayer goes back to a passage in 2 Corinthians. In the 10th chapter, Paul writes about this cosmic battle of the mind that is going on. I think that is what it is that I struggle so much with. For me to be effective in my prayer life, I need to be winning the battle in my mind. If I am losing this battle, then distraction causes me to lose focus. Satan fears prayer, and I think his number one goal is to stop people from praying. Prayer-less people have a very hard time advancing in their spiritual walk, I would actually be as bold to say that it is impossible for a prayer-less person to grow spiritually. So I really think it comes down to a spiritual battle. God wants relationship, and if we are not talking to God, how can we have that bond? Relationships have to be built on communication, so we need to pray.

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