Who Should Pray?

James 5:19b
"The effectual and fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

For the next several days, I'd like to talk about prayer. Prayer is something we need more of. Collectively, we need more of it, as the world around us needs help that is more than just something that can be accomplished by natural power and human ingenuity. Individually we need more prayer, as it is the way to commune with God, make our requests known to Him, and have a deeper relationship with Him. I know I need to pray more, and I don't do so nearly as often or as thoughtfully as I should. I think probably nine out of ten people reading this would say they either pray "seldom" or "not enough" or "not regularly". That needs to change if we are going to be effective followers of Christ.

The first thing I'd like to address is the question, "Who should pray?" Well...all of us who are Christians. We see in the verse today that the prayer of a RIGHTEOUS man is effective.

Wait a minute, you may say. That's not me. I mess up all the time, and I certainly am not "righteous". So, will God listen to our prayers if we are not righteous? As Christians, unconfessed, unrepented sin in our life certainly CAN block our prayers from being answered. Or the distance put between us and God by such unconfessed sin may just leave us not feeling much like praying at all. (Think about it, in your earthly relationships, do you REALLY jump at the chance to talk to a friend you know you've wronged in some way? Not particularly, and it's the same way with God. The first thing we need to do if we can't find ourselves in the mood to pray is search our lives and see if there's some sin that we need to confess.)

However, simply messing up now and again doesn't preclude us from being righteous and having effective prayers. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." When we accept Christ and turn our lives over to Him, God doesn't just see us when he looks at us...He sees His son, Jesus. He doesn't see our sins and failings. He sees Christ's righteousness!

So the answer to, "Who should pray?" is "Anyone who has the spirit of Christ in them."

For those of us who have accepted Christ...pray on!