"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." James 5:16
Oh the power that is packed into these two verses! In these verses we are informed that the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. In and of ourselves, we are not righteous. We are filthy, wicked sinners who fully deserve the wrath of God. But God, because of His great love for us, has provided One who is righteous to stand in our place. Jesus Christ lived a life of perfect and absolute righteousness. Then He was hung upon a wooden cross where He endured the awful fury of God’s wrath towards sin. Now God credits the absolute, perfect righteousness of Christ to all who trust in Him. This is astonishing! God calls us ‘righteous’ in Christ.
This gospel truth should absolutely revolutionize our prayers for Ian. If we have trusted in Jesus, we are counted as righteous. We are His children and He is our Father. He delights in us and our prayers. Not only that, He tells us that our prayers have great power when they are working. Not some power. Not mediocre power. Great power! Meditate on that for a moment. Each and every prayer has great power. Why? Because we are praying to an infinitely powerful God who made us righteous in Christ and delights in our prayers. Each prayer you pray is jam packed with power from God. What a sweet promise!
Let this truth encourage you to pray in faith for Ian’s complete healing. Ask big things of our infinite God. Ask Him to do the absolutely impossible. Why? Because He already did the most difficult thing possible by saving us. Now He beckons us to lift our prayers to Him and tells us that these prayers are full of great power. What a wonderful God we serve. Keep praying!
-Stephen A
1 comment:
Stephen, thanks for these words. They remind me of some lines from Before the Throne.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
Yes, Father, we intercede for Ian not based on our righteousness but based on the righteousness of your Righteous Son. We ask you to heal Ian for your Name's sake!
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