Serving God with Our Prayers
December 11, 2016
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The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.—James 5:16 nlt
God often chooses to move through our prayers to accomplish His work. We see this when God told the prophet Elijah, “I will send rain on the land,” promising to end a drought in Israel that had lasted three and a half years (James 5:17). Even though God had promised rain, a short time later “Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees”—praying intently for the rain to come (1 Kings 18:42). Then, while he continued to pray, Elijah sent his servant to go and look out over the ocean “seven times,” scanning the horizon for any sign of rain (v. 43).
Elijah understood that God wants us to join in His work through humble, persistent prayer. Regardless of our human limitations, God may choose to move through our praying in amazing ways. That’s why the letter of James tells us that “the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results,” all the while reminding us that “Elijah was as human as we are” (James 5:16-17 nlt).
When we make it our aim to serve God through praying faithfully as Elijah did, we’re taking part in a beautiful privilege—where at any moment we may be given a front-row seat to a miracle! —James Banks
How can I serve You through my prayers today, Father?
Great expectation on our part honors God.
INSIGHT: Elijah was human just as we are, but God responded to his persistent prayer. We also see the idea of persistent prayer in the New Testament. To encourage Jesus’s disciples to persist and persevere in prayer, He told them two parables. In Luke 11:5-13, a host persistently knocked on his neighbor’s door until his friend gave him food for his guest (vv. 8-9). In Luke 18:1-8, the widow was dealing with an unjust judge who had no compassion or concern for her. But he gave in and consented to help her to stop her pestering! In both parables, perseverance bore fruit. The question is not if God will answer prayer, for He most certainly will (Luke 18:8). The question is whether we will be found faithful in persistent and persevering prayer (v. 8; Rom. 12:12). Sim Kay Tee
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Wounds from a Friend
December 10, 2016
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Wounds from a friend can be trusted. — Proverbs 27:6
Charles Lowery complained to his friend about lower back pain. He was seeking a sympathetic ear, but what he got was an honest assessment. His friend told him, “I don’t think your back pain is your problem; it’s your stomach. Your stomach is so big it’s pulling on your back.”
In his column for REV! Magazine, Charles shared that he resisted the temptation to be offended. He lost the weight and his back problem went away. Charles recognized that “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted” (Prov. 27:5-6).
The trouble is that so often we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism, for truth hurts. It bruises our ego, makes us uncomfortable, and calls for change.
True friends don’t find pleasure in hurting us. Rather, they love us too much to deceive us. They are people who, with loving courage, point out what we may already know but find hard to truly accept and live by. They tell us not only what we like to hear but also what we need to hear.
Solomon honored such friendship in his proverbs. Jesus went further—He endured the wounds of our rejection not only to tell us the truth about ourselves but to show us how much we are loved. —Poh Fang Chia
Think of a time when a friend said something honest that caused you pain. Did it benefit you? Is it wise to accept everything our friends tell us?
A friend is one who can tell you the truth in love.
INSIGHT: Ephesians 4:15 is a New Testament counterpart of Proverbs 27:6. It refers to two virtues that we must learn to keep in balance—“speaking the truth” and “love.” The word “speaking” is actually not an explicit part of the original Greek text, but is translated from a single verb. Some translators have suggested that the verb might better be rendered “truthing it” or “truthifying it in love.” The verb, when joined with “in love,” implies a lifestyle of integrity where truth is united with love. If we emphasize truth without love, then we can brutally hurt another person. On the other hand, if we express love at the expense of truth, we can fail to caringly confront some sin or problem that genuinely needs to be faced. Jim Townsend
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