A Little Talk with Jesus? Don't Waste Your Breath

That old gospel song, Have a little talk with Jesus, always made me cringe. Whenever people tell me, "I will say a little prayer for you", I want to tell them, "Don't waste your breath". When is the last time anyone told you, "I will fervently supplicate for you before the Lord and bombard the heavens in pleas for you"? I once knew a woman who prayed for me like that. I was a young preacher, still in Bible college. Goldie Livengood was a spry 80 years old who could run circles around people half her age. She was a real prayer warrior. She knew how to summons the throne of heaven. I once visited her in her home and she showed me her prayer list. There were about 20 names on that list and I was humbled to see my name at the top of the list. When she died a part of me died. I truly felt an absence in my life. That woman knew how to reach heaven.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16

I want to focus on the second part of this verse from James. There are 3 things that make prayer dynamic:

1. Effective praying. How does one pray effectively? One cannot pray effectively unless they pray. When I was a young Christian, 2 years old in the Lord, I was very effective in my prayer life. I remember one night sitting around a table with 11 other people in my discipleship group. I was the newest Christian of the group. The leader went around the table asking each person how much they prayed every day. On average everyone prayed about 10 minutes a day. When she got to me I was doubly embarrassed because I prayed 2 hours a day and did not think it was enough. My prayer life was so passionate that when I lay down to sleep at night after praying I could not wait until I awakened in the morning to pray again. I thoroughly enjoyed communing with the Lord. God answer my prayer because I remained in a constant state of prayer in all that I did.
One of the most tell tale indications of this answered prayer was the means in which I evangelized. I rarely ever approached anyone cold turkey with presenting the gospel. God would lay on my heart specific people that I worked with and I would shed tears of sorrow over these people that the Holy Ghost would convict them of sin and make them hungry to know the Lord. Every person that I ever prayed for like that would at some point approach me and ask questions about God. I have had agnostics and even people hostile to the gospel make honest inquiries about God. I have seen the results of effective prayer. Effective prayer is God moving in us.

2.Fervent prayer. I have alluded to this already. There are times that God will lay on my heart a particular individual and my praying for them is stained by tears. This is called intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer is standing in the place of another before the throne of God praying with a passion that the individual you are praying for may not have themselves. Fervent intercessory prayer is effective prayer that availeth much.

3. Righteous prayer. Before we can truly intercede for others we must have an intimate relationship with God on our own account. Intimate relationships of any kind take time to develop. We cannot have intimacy with God unless we spend real time with God. A little talk with Jesus will leave you way short of this intimate relationship and effective prayer. The effectual fervent prayer of a RIGHTEOUS man avails much. If there is known sin in your life forget it. The only prayer you should pray is forgive me God and help me get right with you. Sin is a killer.

The context of James 5 is patience. Patience in the midst of suffering. I must confess my fault as in v.16 and say that I am still cultivating that intimacy with God that I lost many years ago. My prayer is not as consistently effectual and fervent as it was many years ago. But I do long to return to that kind of relationship with God. This may explain some of the recent health issues I have been having. Nothing better than a health problem to teach us patience. And patience must be a part of any intimate relationship. Oh yes, we must learn to be patient with God but more so we must learn to simply be patient with life. God is the master of exercising patience with such rebellious creatures as we otherwise we would all be in hell right now. I praise His holy name for His patience.

One thing I learned many years ago about prayer is that passionate pleas for others more often seem to get Gods attention than passionate pleas for my own situation. I remind myself that God chastises those whom He loves. If you never experience the chastisement of God then its something that should be of concern to you. I'm not saying that God does not answer prayer as it pertains to my personal life. Our personal prayers are often too selfish and lack faith in God almighty. Passionate prayer for others especially for the souls of others is selfless prayer and a sweet incense to God.