Someone Touched Heaven For Me

Someone Touched Heaven For Me

The Power Of Prayer

James 5: 13-18

Story: Build Me a Bridge

A man walking along a California beach was deep in prayer. Suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said, "Because you have TRIED to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish."

The man said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over anytime I want. The Lord said, "Your request is very materialistic. Think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific! The concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that would honor and glorify me."

The man thought about it for a long time. Finally he said, "Lord, I wish that I could understand my wife. I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says ‘nothing's wrong,’ and how I can make a woman truly happy."

The Lord replied, "You want two lanes or four on that bridge?"

James 5:13-18 Read.

Prayer is powerful!!! Prayer is the one most powerful tools we as Christians have if we will just use it to glorify God.

In our Scripture we read about just how strong prayer really is. You see Elijah was a man just like us, and all he did was pray but pray earnestly and we see the power unleashed. It didn’t rain for 3 and a half years. Then the Bible says that he prayed again and the heavens opened up and the rain fell and the crops grew.

There was nothing special, or supernatural about Elijah. The scripture says that he was like us. Just a normal man who prayed earnestly and received an unbelievable answer to his prayer. Of course there are some other factors here at play.

Back in verse 16 it tells us that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Proverbs 15:8 Tells us that The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him.

Proverbs 15:29 The Lord is far from the wicked but He hears the prayer of the righteous.

So maybe you are one of those people that seem to think, none of my prayers seem to ever get answered. Ask yourself this.

How righteous is your life?

Do you have sin in your life?

Are you repenting of those sins?

Are you turning away from those sins?

God will bless and answer the prayers in powerful ways if we strive every day to be righteous.

I would like to think that we all pray the way we should.

I do know that most of us do not pray the way we should.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 Tells us to be joyful always; Pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Many people only pray when it is convenient or only when things have reached a point in our life that we have no other option but to pray for help. We never look to God until we realize that we can’t do it alone anymore. We can’t fix it. We have finally thrown our hands up in the air and said I can’t. Then we go to our last resort and decide to pray for help from God. We want God to bail us out of the mess we got ourselves into, when we could have avoided the whole thing if we would have prayed for guidance. Or simply tried to live righteous. This seems somewhat backwards if you ask me, but each of us have done this.

The scripture tells us to pray continually.

Why wait till it is out of control? Why not stay in constant communication with God and let Him lead us, steer us in the right direction in life.

We will still make mistakes, MANY mistakes in life but I truly believe that if we allow God to take over the reigns and listen to His guidance, stay in constant communication with Him, we will be so much better off than we could ever do for ourselves.

So what is the best way to Pray?

This reminds me of the story of

The Best Way to Pray

A priest, a minister and a guru sat discussing the best positions for prayer while a telephone repairman worked nearby. "Kneeling is definitely the best way to pray," the priest said.

"No," said the minister. "I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to Heaven."