Our God tells us our prayers avail much! In holy scripture the book of James says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (5:16b ESV). Other translations say, “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (NIV) or “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (KJV).
First – who are the righteous? Scripture calls some people the righteous: these are those whose faith in and love for God causes them to order their lives according to God’s laws (Psalm 1:2; 1 John 3:7); God bestows righteousness on them because he counts faith as righteousness (Genesis 15:6; Philippians 3:9).
So if you and I are the righteousness of God, what do we think about our prayers availing much? Can we make a quick long list of past answered prayers? Are our prayers effective? Are they in accordance with God’s will and coming to fruition? Perhaps they are going unanswered or delayed in being answered? Are they faith-filled and powerful or have they just become a mundane ritual or a daily chore?
Let’s remember God knows everything and He knows the perfect timing. His answers are not always immediate and are not always answered in the ways we hope for, however He is always on time and in His infinite wisdom has the perfect answers to our prayers. Our prayers are seeds planted. Now it’s up to the Master Gardener to bring forth the harvest. Let’s water our seed (not dig up our seed through doubt and unbelief) in continual prayer believing, knowing there is no prayer unheard by our God, our good good Father, who never slumbers or sleeps.
Let’s get our expecters up, letting the scripture stir us up in faith, praying in accordance with God’s will those faith-filled prayers and watching and waiting and believing for those answers to come because we know that we know our prayers avail much!