SCRIPTURE FOCUS
James 5:16 - The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results (NLT).
PRAYER FOCUS
Never underestimate the power of prayer! Our Scripture focus for today teaches us that for those of us who are righteous, our prayer has great power and produces wonderful results! Who are these righteous ones? They are those who have received the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:18) through Jesus. James chose the example of Elijah in 1 Kings 17:1 and 18:42-45 to illustrate how effective an earnest prayer can be.
Of course, Elijah was a mighty prophetic voice during Israel’s divided kingdom. However, James wanted his readers to know that he was still a mere man with no more influence with the LORD than the New Testament believer. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we have been ”made the righteousness of God” in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21). In other words, we qualify as the “righteous person” in James 5:16, and our prayers have great power as they are working.
RESPONSE
What requests are on our hearts to bring to the LORD today? We can bring them with confidence that our prayers are effective and powerful because we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.