Praying Like Elijah - James 5:17-18 Series

17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain

He prayed for a drought. That’s quite the prayer request, isn’t it? Have you ever heard that one in your prayer group? Of all the things Elijah could’ve asked God for. God calls us to come to Him and ask Him for the desires of our hearts. Elijah can ask God for anything in the whole wide world, and that’s what he asks for? Where did that come from? Do you suppose Elijah just woke up one day and said, “You know what would be really cool? Three and a half years of abject misery and total economic devastation and suffering and death in the place where I live. That would just be awesome.”

I think it’s pretty obvious this is not something that came from Elijah. It came from God. God made it known to Elijah that this was what He wanted to do. Way back at the time of Moses, when God first gave His law and made His covenant with the people of Israel, He told them, if they went after idols, and they were unfaithful to Him, they would experience drought. God was merciful and patient for a long time, but now the time has come to bring judgment. And God made that known to Elijah. When God does marvelous things in answer to prayer, it’s not because someone prays and God says, “Hey, great idea! Why didn’t I think of that?” The reason great, awesome things happen through prayer is God purposes to do it, then burdens that on someone’s heart, and the person prays for it. That is what we learn from the example of Elijah. It was God’s idea, and that is what brought about the earnestness in Elijah, because he knew it was from God.

Ask God to Burden Your Heart with Something

How did he know? He was a prophet. So how does that help me? My dad always used to say, “I’m not a prophet nor the son of a prophet; in fact, we are a non-prophet church.” None of us are prophets. So if that’s the case, how does this example have any relevance for us? Clearly it does, or James wouldn’t offer it as an example.

God does not speak to us with inspired, word-for-word messages like He did with the prophets. But He does guide us into His will. Doesn’t Romans 12:2 promise that if we are transformed by the renewing of our minds we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is?

Romans 12:2 …be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Doesn’t Romans 8:26 promise that the Holy Spirit will reveal God’s will in our hearts in those times when we don’t know what to pray for? Even if you are not a prophet, it is possible for you to discern what God has laid on your heart to pray for in specific situations. Sometimes God allows his guidance to be difficult to discern, but other times He makes it crystal-clear. And the clearer it is, the more we can pray like Elijah. We can keep praying earnestly and say, “I am not letting go of this, because I know for a fact that God has laid this on my heart.”

George Mueller is famous for how often God answered his prayers. Shortly before he died in 1898, Arthur Pierson asked him, “Have you ever had a prayer that wasn’t answered?” Mueller said, “Yes, there are two men that I’ve been praying for for 62 years and they still aren’t saved.” Pierson asked: “Do you still expect God to convert them?” And Mueller said, “Do you suppose that God would put upon His child for 62 years the burden of two souls if He had not purposed their salvation? I shall certainly meet them in Heaven.” George Mueller died and eventually both those men came to faith in Christ. He knew God had laid that on his heart, and so even on his deathbed, after 62 years of praying, he had no doubt.