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The Power of Earnest Prayer

How close do you feel to your family and fellow believers? Who do you pray for regularly? Should you make amends with anyone? Do you worry about circumstances you can’t control? James, the brother of Jesus, reminds us there is something simple we can do to strengthen relationships and impact the world. Something powerful that produces wonderful results. Prayearnestly.

To pray earnestly means to pray with sincere and intense conviction–to be serious about prayer. The movie War Room illustrates this well as it relates to marriage. A woman named Liz learns to pray earnestly for her headstrong husband and gets miraculous results. The next time a conflict occurs in your life, remember that the devil is behind that dysfunction. Don’t give him any satisfaction!

Put on the armor of God and stand firm against the devil’s strategies. Satan wants to isolate everyone because God created us to be a part of his community–the church. “Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere” (Ephesians 6:18b). One way to be persistent (a hack, if you will) is to write your prayers on paper so you can repeat them. That forces you to slow down and craft a more passionate prayer. Include Scripture. Stand on God’s promises!

James encouraged believers to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other.” This applies to fellow believers and to marriage. When making amends, confession and forgiveness free us from guilt and resentment, respectively. It also shows others we’re sincere. Confession, forgiveness, and prayer restore relationships.

Many things are out of our control, but we’re all able to pray. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God as they sat in jail. Can you imagine how earnestly they prayed and praised God to spark the earthquake that freed them?

Since there’s little we can control in this fallen world, perhaps God designed prayer not only for communication and spiritual warfare, but to cultivate a closer connection with us. He wants us to talk to Him, to cast our cares on Him, to confide in Him, and to rely on Him. Pray earnestly and trust Him to move those mountains in your marriage, church, or elsewhere.

Father, you’ve promised that earnest prayer is powerful and produces wonderful results. Help me pray with passion, persistence, and patience.

For Further Reading: John 9:31; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17