Prayer: Our First Response
Pause:
Before you start reading this devotional, take a moment to stop what you’re doing, slow down and focus on Jesus.
Pray and ask him to open your eyes to see as you read the scriptures, and to open your ears to hear as you wait on the leading of the Spirit.
Read:
James 5v16b-18: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”
Going Deeper:
If you are anything like me, you are probably feeling more than a little overwhelmed right now by the effects that the Coronavirus is having on the world around you and on the people you love.
If you turn on any news channel you are sure to be bombarded with the latest statistics regarding the sick, the dead and a global economy in turmoil.
It may have previously been easier to remain numb to the seemingly random numbers and percentages on our screens, but things are starting to hit much closer to home. It’s getting to the point where very few people remain unaffected by this virus, and at this stage almost everyone personally knows someone who is suffering at this time.
It is hard not to feel completely helpless in the face of all this suffering.
Under normal conditions we would have had the opportunity to come to people’s aid in a variety of different ways. Perhaps we would have made and delivered meals to them or looked after their children in the midst of a chaotic season so that they could have a break. We most certainly would have visited those close to us when they were sick in hospital or have popped into their homes to share a cup of coffee with them during hard times to show that we care. But these are far from normal days and our usual remedies of assistance are not so readily available.
We are, however, not powerless.
As we read through this text from James 5 we see that there is indeed something profoundly helpful that we can do at this time: we can pray.
At first glance this may seem a little cliche. In times of trouble I am often on the search to find more “practical” ways to help myself or the people I love. If I am being completely honest at times prayer has been more of a last resort than a first response.
This may have something to do with the pervasive culture of today that sells us the lie that we are all victims of fate and that there’s not too much we can do about it. A culture that is deceptively luring us more and more into the idea that ‘whatever will be will be’ with or without our prayers.
Against the backdrop of the Coronavirus and under the sheer magnitude of the troubles the world is facing at this time, praying might seem futile at best and foolish at worst. We may question whether our prayers make any difference at all.
But we see all throughout Scripture that when God’s people turn to him in prayer, situations and circumstances change.
Oswald Chambers writes: “We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there is nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.”
It’s in unprecedented times like these that we realize that although prayer may be the only thing we can do, it is also the most powerful thing we can do.
As followers of Jesus we are not helpless in the face of a crisis. Through Jesus we know that we can come confidently to God in prayer, to find his grace and help in our time of need (Hebrews 4v15-16).
We serve a God who is powerful and mighty. He is a God who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask for or imagine. He has already accomplished the impossible through Jesus’ death and resurrection, so that our sins could be forgiven and our relationship with him restored.
God has proven his faithfulness to us on the cross, and in many ways since then, he will not abandon us now or leave us to face this pandemic on our own.
The truth is that there is no better way that we can love and support one another at this time then through prayer. It is our great privilege at this time to partner with God in prayer, to ask him for his help, and to intercede on the behalf of others.
As Richard Foster writes, “If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer. Intercession is a way of loving others.”
Pray:
Respond to God in prayer by speaking to Him about what stood out to your from this passage this morning.
Listen:
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?
Apply:
What are you going to do in response to what God is saying to you from the text and by the Spirit?