NIV: Elijah was a man just like us. He
prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for
three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and
the earth produced its crops.
The Message: Elijah, for instance, human just
like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three
and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers
came and everything started growing again.
In verse 16, James
spoke of the prayers of a righteous person being powerful and effective, or as
The Message translates it, the prayer of a person
living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
Have you ever
thought of yourself as a force to be reckoned with? Do you really think that your prayers
matter? That you are significant enough
for God to listen to what you have to say?
It is all too easy to believe that you don't matter, you don't count,
that even if you were to pray, why
should God bother to listen to you as no one else ever does anyway. What can you do to change things when nobody
bothers about you anyway? How can you possibly make a difference when you are
just a housewife, unemployed, sick, a person (in your opinion) of no account?
But look again what
verse 16 says:
NIV: Therefore confess your sins to each other
and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous
person is powerful and effective.
The Message: Make this your common practice:
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live
together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is
something powerful to be reckoned with.
The prayer of a
righteous person….not a righteous person who has pots of money in the bank and
is a high powered business executive.
Not a righteous person who is a charismatic leader, one on whom people
hang on their every word. Not a
righteous person who is world famous, a star, followed by their adoring fan
club wherever they go. But a righteous
person who is living right with God, who has a heart after God, even though
they may mess up at times.
To emphasise this,
James goes on to talk about Elijah, "a man
just like us."
Elijah wasn't some
superstar globe trotting to give one concert after another. He wasn't a politician striving for world
peace, a Mother Theresa in India, or someone giving all their time and energy
to the church. Elijah was actually an ordinary man. His name means "Yahweh is my God"
and he was a prophet in Samaria during
the reign of Ahab in the 9th century BC.
He stood up to the prophets of Baal, defended the worship of God, raised
the dead, and was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind. God used Him in amazing ways, yet he was just
a man, as evidenced by his reaction when Jezebel threatened him after the showdown with the priests of
Baal.
1 Kings 19:1-5a Ahab reported to Jezebel
everything that Elijah had done, including the massacre of the prophets.
Jezebel immediately sent a messenger to Elijah with her threat: "The gods
will get you for this and I'll get even with you! By this time tomorrow you'll
be as dead as any one of those prophets."
When Elijah saw how things were, he ran for dear life
to Beersheba, far in the south of Judah. He left his young servant there and
then went on into the desert another day's journey. He came to a lone broom
bush and collapsed in
its shade, wanting in the worst way to be done with it all—to just die:
"Enough of this, God! Take my life—I'm ready to join my ancestors in
the grave!" Exhausted, he fell asleep under the lone broom bush. (The
Message)
There he is, having
just had probably the best day any prophet could have, having been used by God
to call down fire from heaven, set alight a soaking wet altar, proving once and
for all that there is a God and His name
is Jehovah, having all the prophets of Baal killed, bringing the rain back to
the parched land (and yes, I know it was all God working through Elijah and not
Elijah having special magical powers or anything), what does he do when the
Queen turns on him> does he run to
God? Does he take it to the Lord in
prayer? No, he is totally demoralised,
in fear for his life and he runs away as far and as fast as he can, and his day
ends with him telling God to just let him die now. If that doesn't show Elijah's humanity. I
don't know what does.
Elijah trusted God.
Look how he had the people soak the altar he made with water three times (I
Kings 18). He then called on God:
1 Kings 18:36-37 When
it was time for the sacrifice to be offered, Elijah the prophet came up and
prayed, "O God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make it known
right now that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I'm
doing what I'm doing under your orders. Answer me, God; O answer me and reveal to this people that you are God, the true God, and that you are giving these people another chance at
repentance." (The Message)
Elijah out his trust
on God and God worked through Elijah to bring the people back to Him. When Elijah prayed that the rain would stop,
it stopped. When he then prayed three and
a half years later for the rain to come, it came. Elijah prayed and God listened and answered
his prayers.
In the same way, God
listens to each of our prayers, whether they are big or small, and each one is
answered. We may not realise that our
prayers have been answered at the time, it may take time for us to see how God
has answered us. Sometimes we have to
wait a long time for our prayers to be answered. But if a day is as a thousand years to the
Lord and a thousand years as but a day (2 Peter 3:8), then ten years to us
works out at 14.9 minutes to God…..
Elijah had
faith. He trusted God and knew that when
he prayed, God listened and acted yet he was just a man, just like you and
me.
Mark 11:22-26 Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth, if
anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not
doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done
for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever
you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be
yours. And when you stand praying, if
you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven
may forgive you your sins. (NIV)
Mark 11:22-26 Jesus was matter-of-fact:
"Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much
for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, 'Go jump in the lake'—no
shuffling or shilly-shallying—and it's as good as done. That's why I urge you
to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include
everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything. And
when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it's not all asking. If
you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly Father
be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins." (The Message)
We are told by Jesus
himself to pray for everything, big or small, and to have faith in God. We just need to make sure our hearts are
right with God first and that we have forgiven those who have hurt us, so that
God may forgive us.
It's not always easy
to forgive others. After all, the drunk
driver who killed your husband and son is still alive and well, with his wife
and family, yet yours has been taken from you.
The man who enticed your wife into an affair is getting promotion after
promotion whilst you have just lost your job.
Those other children at school who are always picking on you, making
your life a misery, never seem to get
into trouble yet you are so worried about what they may say or do, you keep
missing school and getting into trouble with the teachers. The best friend who ran off with your
husband, the thief who broke in and stole from you, the boss who always puts
you down, makes you work long hours and refuses to pay overtime but you need
the job and what little money it does bring in.
The father who abused you when you were young, the mother who was an
alcoholic and neglected you….there are all sorts of things that happen I life
and they are not always our fault. It is often easier to nurse a grudge, to
hold it tightly in our hand and remind ourselves daily that that person did
such and such and how much it hurt, how we have suffered as a result.
But we are not told
to harbour grudges, to count up the hurts and slights for the day of
reckoning. Holding grudges only hurts
ourselves as we cannot enjoy the things we do have, the blessings in our lives
if we are always thinking back to what happened in the past or what is
happening now as a result of the actions of others. We only end up having our hearts turn to
stone as we dwell more and more on the hurt, the anger, the pain. It is not easy to forgive others, especially
when the hurt runs deep. But we are
called to do this.
I think that, as
with all things, it is a case of telling God exactly what we think of the
matter and asking Him to help us forgive, asking for His love to remove the
pain, the hurt, the anguish and to let Him heal us. For when we are healed ourselves, when we
have learned to forgive others, the coldness the hate in our hearts will no
longer be a barrier to God using us amazingly. And use us He will, for have we
not been told that we will do even greater things than Jesus?
John 14:11-14 Believe me: I am in my Father and
my Father is in me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see—these
works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even
greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work
to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you
request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how
the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you
request in this way, I'll do. (The
Message)
God is just waiting
for us to turn to Him, to place all things in His hands and to pray so that He
can then get to work. How amazing is
that? To know that if only we have the faith,
we can do the things Elijah did, that Jesus and the disciples did. Maybe the lack of miracles we see today is
because we just don't have the faith to believe we can do them. But we are told time and time again in the
bible that we can do them and we can do even greater things than Jesus. Even though we are just men and women, we
can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us. We just need to have
the faith to believe this.
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