James 5:16 - "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

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MasterClass: it’s where a celebrity, someone famous in their specific field—be it tennis, culinary preparation, filmmaking, writing, leadership, design, and so many others—teaches an online course to help someone who wants to grow in that field. To that person, the lessons are so important to them, and more than that, the one teaching it is someone they deeply value. 

 

If you had the opportunity to ask Jesus Christ to teach you one thing, what would it be? Something you would do because the lesson is important, but the one who is teaching it is so important, too. 

 

The disciples made their choice. They didn’t ask for a lesson on preaching or on healing. They didn’t even ask for a lesson on singing. They asked Christ to teach them how to pray. 

 

Luke 11:1 - “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

 

The Bible has so much to teach us about prayer, but this Wednesday evening, we’ll look at James 5:16 with a heart that longs for a lesson on prayer. 

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1. HOW TO PRAY EFFECTUALLY​

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“Effectual” is a word we don’t often use today, but is defined by Oxford’s Learner Dictionary as doing something “in a way that produces a particular result.” Collins Dictionary explains it this way: doing something “with the intended effect; thoroughly.” 

 

Is that how you would be able to describe your life of prayer? It’s what the Bible is taking about when it uses the word "effectual". 

 

Now, we must take one thing for granted - an understanding that answers to prayer are not based on our words, wisdom, work, or way of praying, but is fully dependent on the work of our all-powerful God. It’s a truth reflected in the rhetorical question in Genesis 18:14, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” The answer is no. 

 

With that in mind, our prayers must be effectual. They must be prayed thoroughly, with the intended outcome. We must pray specifically, and not generally. We must pray with specifics, and not just summaries of our desires. With that, there must always be an elevation of God’s desire over ours’. 

 

Empty words are replaced by an effectual heart.

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2. HOW TO PRAY FERVENTLY

 

“Effectual” and “fervent” come from the one Greek word, “energeō”, which means to be at work, to be operative. It is to have an intense, sincere, and enthusiastic passion and desire. Prayer lists aren’t a bad thing, but if our lists stay as lists, and never become an intense and sincere passion, we’ve missed the point. 

 

Fervent prayer employs our emotions, not just our words. Emotions lead to a passion that would otherwise be missing, and lead to a persistence in prayer that is needed. 

 

It requires a recognition of our desperation—a desperation for God to work in any given situation. 

 

In Luke 11, we find a desperate man. Desperate for bread. He asks a friend who is not willing to be bothered. There are many things in the way. The man keeps knocking, and in verse 8, the Bible says, “…because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”

 

It was his persistence—his shamelessness to keep asking, that got him what he needed in that moment. It’s what we would see down here on earth as an annoying persistence in asking for something, over and over again. With God, there’s nothing annoying about it. He wants us to frequently, fervently ask. 

 

Fervent prayer is persistence with passion. 

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3. HOW TO PRAY RIGHTEOUSLY

 

Praying righteously comes when we recognise that prayer is more about the vessel than the words. It’s more about our life than our language. Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

 

In Psalm 51, David was responding to the recognition of his sin. In verse 17, he cries, “…a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Sin in our lives isn’t a dead end, thank the Lord. It is, however, something we must deal with if we’re every going to keep going - and we can do so with a broken and contrite heart. Remorse, with a desire to get right with God and with those around us. 

 

We can’t just pray as we are. We must make sure we’re right with God. That takes brokenness, confession, and trust in a God who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Every single time. 

 

As you pray tonight, whether you’re alone, or with your family—sign up for this ‘MasterClass’. Ask God, as the disciples did, to teach you how to pray. And with fervency, may we bring our requests before Him tonight—especially the ones below. He’s not just looking for a prayer tonight. He’s looking for one who will persist in prayer. ​