The power of prayer

[AI translation] People of faith often have problems with prayer in general. And it is no wonder, because if it is true - and it is true - that prayer is breathing for the believer, then prayer is indeed very central to the life of every believer, and therefore of all of us.You may remember, in the last of these, the last Sunday service of the month, we talked about unheard prayer. Now I would like to shed light on an issue from God's Word that is also on the minds of many believers and prayerful souls. The question is this: It is so often said how much prayer means to us. Jesus, too, encourages us over and over again to just pray and ask, to keep on praying and seeking, but I don't feel the power! I say it, I say it, but afterwards I am just as weak and powerless as before. Why? I think any one of us sitting here could have asked that question, because we all have similar experiences. In this Word that I have read, this is what it is about. It is not about prayer in general, because it is such a huge subject that the Apostle James could have written his whole letter about it. He is talking here specifically about the power of prayer.
You have heard it said that "the fervent supplication of the righteous is very profitable" (James 1:16a) The New Hungarian translation of the Bible renders this "very profitable" by a more accurate translation of the original text: "There is great power in the fervent supplication of the righteous. So there is great power in it. It is about the great power of prayer! And no doubt this is a very bold statement, since it is in itself very bold to suppose that there is an unseen but real One who hears at all and listens to our supplications and prayers to Him. And this prayer that we say here in church, or at home in our solitary silence, is not simply a cultic, habitual event. It is not a spiritual phenomenon of auto-magnetic proportions, but something that actually has real meaning and practical use. It is really a daring assumption to suppose that through prayer there is a connection between me and God, between heaven and earth. But that is what it is!
But let us never forget that it was not I who made this connection, but God who first made the connection with me. It was not I who dialled heaven on some spiritual telephone machine in invisible space, but it was from there that I was first called. I did not call God first, but He calls me always, again and again. And I am just answering this voice that comes to me from there. And these voices and heavenly messages keep coming to me! The only problem is that we are not always tuned in! It's kind of like this church space we are in together. It is full of many different radio waves. We can't see them, but they are here, we can't hear them, but they are vibrating here. But the moment we set up a suitable receiver, a radio receiver, and set it to work, the music that was here before, but could not be heard, will be heard among us. Somehow our souls have such a mysterious receiver. Let's call it faith. If we tune it in and tune it to the heavenly wavelength, we can hear the heavenly transmission. At the same time we feel and hear that God has spoken to us. God has contacted us! From the words of the Bible and the preacher, we can hear God's voice, and so the possibility of responding to Him becomes very real! To speak to Him, to address Him, to ask Him for something, to give thanks, to pray. Doesn't the "prayer problem" now have a different weight? And so, prayer is really an invisible but real relationship with One who is above us and who encourages us: do not be afraid, I am here! I am God, I hear what you say! That is why the Apostle James says that it is the prayer of the righteous man that has great power.
But who is the just man? It is by no means the man without sin. For we all know very well that there is no man without sin. Who, then, is the righteous man? It is precisely the man addressed by God who is the righteous man. That is, the one whom God has found by his word. He has set you before Himself and declared you righteous, acquitted of all charges for the sacrifice of Jesus in His place. The righteous man is the one who knows - because he has already heard the word of God - that he stands before God burdened with all manner of sins and failings, all manner of physical and spiritual afflictions. But he is standing before a God who has forgiven him for the merits of Jesus and has graciously adopted him as His child. So to pray as a righteous man is to stand on the basis of Jesus' redemptive work already done and to speak boldly, with childlike confidence, to our Father in heaven. Thus, it is more probable and more credible what the Apostle says: "There is great power in the fervent supplication of the just man". But the great power is not in the prayer itself! It is not in the words of our prayer that there is some magical power, but in the fact that prayer connects us with the mighty God, the powerful God! For the very essence of all prayer is that it connects the human soul to the heavenly powerhouse. Prayer means to count on a power that I do not produce from myself, but that I receive from God. So it is not for us to make our prayer powerful. It is not for us to crucify our will and put some spiritual impulse into it!
The intensity of our emotions, the concentration of our will, does not make our prayer strong. Of course this is important, but beyond all this, the Apostle James directs our attention to the One to whom we pray. So it is about the power of God, in fact. That's what we need to focus our prayer on. Then God can put His power into our prayer, which is otherwise very dull and poor in emotion, like a vessel. So it is not how I feel, what my experience or experience of hearing prayer is, that determines the power I experience through prayer, but the many, many promises God has made to me! Among others, for example, what we have just read, that there is great power in the prayer of the righteous man. There is great power even if you feel none of it. God has said so, and wherever this power is poured out, it is certain that it will not remain without effect. But what the apostle says is also very important, that there is great power in fervent supplication. Again, the word fervent is emphatic. And if this adjective, "fervent," be omitted from one's prayer, let him not be surprised if he derives no power from it. For think that many a time the almost meaninglessly scribbled prayer, and the weary prayer-strings that one says before going to bed, struggling to fall asleep, while still fast asleep, cannot be called fervent. It is not a prayer of any length, and certainly not an exuberant prayer, but it is a prayer that is deep, heartfelt, and full of the spirit. One in which the whole man is involved. A very serious Christian thinker once said that prayer is much harder than work. And out of a hundred men who are not afraid to do the work, there would hardly be one or two who would undertake the strenuous work of prayer. Most people run away from it, afraid of it. Who was not afraid when he first had to be alone with God? Perhaps that is why so few people really pray. The great power is only in the fervent supplication of which the apostle speaks. I remember him, I used to charge my battery a lot when I was a student, because they had radios back then. I know very well how long a connection to the power source was needed to charge the battery properly. The soul also needs such a thorough, if not exactly prolonged, but certainly not rushed, regular, on-again, off-again connection to be filled with this particular heavenly energy.
Here we see that prayer is not an unproductive devotion, but a serious preparation for the tasks of daily life. But which of us does not need that great power from above in our daily life, in carrying the burden of our work? Or in enduring sufferings and crosses, or even in developing a Christlike way of life? Which of us would not need superhuman strength to do so? It is different, is it not, to go into the struggle of a new day in the morning with your own strength, or even with that strength from above? I am sure it would show in every aspect of our daily lives if we would only take a little seriously what the apostle says about the great power of the just man's fervent supplication! The apostle illustrates this with an example. He speaks of how "Elijah was a man of our nature, and prayed that it might not rain, and there was no rain on the earth for three years and six months: and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth yielded her fruit." (verse 16) Again, we are talking about how prayer is not a trivial thing. How much more than a private matter for a devout soul! I scarcely dare say it, but it is so, it is seen in the Word, that prayer is a service for the good of the community!
Behold, here in the Word, we almost see that prayer has become a national matter. The whole country, the whole nation, the whole economic and political life of the people, was influenced by the fact that Elijah prayed. This is astonishing! It is astonishing that God should so much take into account the prayer of His people! Elijah prayed not just for himself, as we are wont to do, but for the whole kingdom, for the whole nation! For here God is not only trying to help us individually! He wants to help everyone! Perhaps it is precisely through our prayer that He wants to bring the help of His grace to those who do not or cannot pray. That is why God needs a praying church on this earth. A spiritual people who are for this world and who are used to and can pray for this world. That is why the apostle says, "Pray for one another that you may be healed." (James 5:16b) If any of you feel now that you do not feel the power of prayer, I can only give you one really good piece of advice. It is that you should try seriously to go before God in your lonely prayers for someone else for once. Stand between God and a sick person, or between God and a grieving family, or between God and the much-maligned long-haired hooligans! Stand between God and our people! Take on some real burdens! Burdens such as the cause of peace in the world, or the conversion of a man, or the cessation of wars on earth, or the purity of preaching in the churches. These are the burdens that he brings before God in prayer. Be a channel between the blessings of God and the many human miseries! You will see how your whole prayer life will be renewed! "Pray for one another that you may be healed"! Do we really believe what is in this promise? Can we really believe that in the death and resurrection of Jesus there is indeed healing power for all the turmoil and troubles of life on earth? Do we believe that if we could pray for one another in this fervent, truly fervent way, as I have said, the effect of that great power would be more fully felt here on this earth? It is a wonderful thing that in praying for one another we are like all God's gifts! That while we live it, we ourselves are most enriched by it!
So, "pray for one another that you may be healed"! This also applies to the person who prays, and not only to the person for whom he prays. In the meantime, the one who prays is also healed! In praying for one another, one can almost feel the flame of love for God and for people ignite in one's heart and warm one's own otherwise shivering soul! Now, don't anyone say that I am Elijah, but I am not Elijah, I am not a prophet, I cannot pray like that! I have tried to show throughout this sermon that the power of prayer does not rest with us, but with God. And with prayer we are not like some talent that one person has and another person does not. Like one person is good at math and the other is not. In prayer we are all the same! That is why the apostle James says that Elijah was a man like us. But what a weak man he was! Just as weak as you and me. It is precisely because he wants to use the example of such a poor man like us to show us the wonderful and great power of prayer, so that we may be encouraged! It is not for us to be a man endowed with some special ability and power!
We only need to believe! We must only believe that God is the strong, that our Saviour is the mighty, the gracious Lord! If you believe this, you can pray! His power will do what you so fervently pray for! Even if you can't see it, even if you can't feel it!
Amen
Date: 26 October 1969.