READING: Jeremiah 37, 21, 34; Psalm 79; James 5
I have great respect for prayer warriors. They pray, and you just know they touch heaven. They can speak of marvelous answers to prayer—but they tell the stories as if what they experience ought to be the norm. Prayer warriors just expect God to work when they talk to Him. Their faith seems extraordinary, and their prayers are powerful.
On the other hand, no prayer warrior I know would call himself or herself a great pray-er. Rather, the most praying people I know are also some of the most humble people I know. They know without question they’re just redeemed sinners to whom God gives the privilege of being in His presence and speaking to Him.
As James writes about prayer, he makes the same point via using the illustration of Elijah. The prophet was just “a human being as we are” (James 5:17), but still God worked through his prayers to stop and start rain at his request. That is, God moved the weather in response to an ordinary human being. To all of us who are also just human beings, that example ought to be greatly encouraging to us. It is indeed true that “the prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect” (James 5:16).
We’re only human, but our God is the almighty, responsive, gracious, loving God who invites us into His presence. Our hope in prayer is not based on ourselves; instead, it clings to the true God in all cases.
PRAYER: “God, make me a prayer warrior, too.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Jeremiah 30-33; 1 Peter 1
