"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit."
In many ways, the prayer of faith James describes can feel extremely daunting to those of us who struggle with the reality that no matter how hard we try to live for righteousness, we continue to fall into our addictive patterns of sin. It magnifies the fact that our ability to overcome temptation is not dependent on the strength of our own will, but the power of the Spirit who dwells in us. Even Jesus echoed this sentiment as He witnessed His disciples sleeping rather than being watchful and praying in the moments shortly before He was arrested. "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Mark 14:38). Unfortunately, the disciples could not follow through on the simple instruction Jesus gave to stay awake and pray because their personal will was more important. The temptation to sleep in Christ's hour of need proved how weak their own spirits were and how susceptible they had become to relying on their own strength rather than the Spirit of God. In contrast, many of us believe we would behave differently if we were in their shoes. We can make that judgment call though, because we know the Gospel account of Jesus' life and how important that individual moment in time was. We know what transpired next in the garden of Gethsemane and the ensuing events that led to the crucifixion of Christ. However, do we realize what a privilege it is to know the Gospel story and how easy it is to believe what we read in the pages of Scripture, as opposed to not knowing the future and praying for wisdom and discernment?
The Bible declares, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Our faith affirms we believe what Scripture states is absolute and true, without blemish or question as to its validity and trustworthiness. That is our foundation as followers of Christ. Therefore, we can study the Scriptures with an uncanny ability to learn from the triumphs and failures of those who have walked before us. James provides such an opportunity through the life of Elijah to illustrate how effective and powerful prayer is, contingent upon a continuous striving to live for righteousness as opposed to an attainment of perfection. James states candidly that Elijah was not perfect, and within the story of Elijah's life we are provided evidence of his failures. He was a man with a (sin) nature like ours who faced spiritual fork-in-the-road decisions every day of his life. We do not know much about Elijah's upbringing as he first appears on the pages of Scripture beginning with his proclamation to king Ahab of a three year and six month drought, then heads for the hills per God's instruction to live in relative isolation for the drought period. In context, the drought was ordained by God in response to idolatry in the land regarding worship to Baal and Elijah was chosen to deliver God's message of judgment to the wicked king. It is imperative we don't overlook that God chose Elijah not because He was perfect, but because he was submissive to the Lord's authority and obedient to follow the Lord's instruction regardless of the consequences. Elijah experienced countless miracles in his lifetime that we cannot fathom, but it was his faithfulness to the Lord and his trust in God's sovereignty that enabled his prayers to be answered.
When we read 1 Kings 16-17, we see how God supernaturally performed miracles by simple instructions inspired through the power of the Holy Spirit to Elijah, or via fervent prayers offered to the Lord by Elijah. In either scenario, the Lord was the source of provision and Elijah was the vessel He chose to accomplish His will. This should encourage our hearts immensely! Consider how the prophet Isaiah eloquently put our identity into perspective: "But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand" (Isaiah 64:8). Like the nation Israel, we are chosen by God with an everlasting love that endures despite our repeated sins and failures. He works in us and through us, regardless of our sins because He is the author of life and will ordain His will be done because He sees what we cannot and knows what we do not. He chooses to work through our behavior (righteous and unrighteous) and brings glory to Himself despite the failures of our lives to provide grace and forgiveness through repentance. Therefore, we can trust He is in supreme control over our lives and the lives we encounter each day for the purposes of mercy or wrath in order to accomplish His will, which is perhaps one of the hardest truths of Scripture for our hearts to accept. "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory" (Romans 9:21-23).
The key takeaway to James' example of Elijah is understanding that prayer is a work we do which testifies to our faith. Moreover, James previously stated, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17), by highlighting Old Testament examples of Abraham and Rahab. In each case, James drives home the point that God used (and uses) imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will. We cannot miss that truth. For when the time comes and God speaks a word of instruction into our hearts, how will we respond? Will our lives bear witness to the teaching of Hebrews 11 as we "By Faith" obey the Lord's calling? Or will our faith simply be faith without works, evidenced by our unwillingness to submit to God's authority? Either-way, we are not ignoring the fact that we struggle to live out the Gospel daily. Even the apostle Paul understood the magnitude of his own flesh vs. spirit battle as he fulfilled his ministry calling. "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing" (Romans 7:18-19). And that honest testimony should give us great comfort to know that while we continue to fight temptation and resist sinful choices, even when we do fall, God is still at work in us and through us to accomplish His will despite our shortcomings.
Answered prayer is more easily made possible through righteous living, but is not contingent upon it. God still has the final say and we must accept that the vessels He creates for honorable and dishonorable use are His choice. Nonetheless, we are still called to pray and offer our heart's desires to the Lord, especially that lost souls will be found and come to repentance and salvation in Christ. Our response is simply to accept and obey His final decision despite how hard that truth is to accept at times for perhaps our prodigal family members and friends who continue to reject Christ. But we are called to pray by faith fervently and without ceasing just as Elijah did, because God brings to fruition His will in His time and in His way. There are simply too many examples of men and women who have come to salvation inspired by the faithful prayers of the righteous who have trusted God. For Jesus reminds us, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9:12b-13). Therefore, let us solidify our foundation of faith by resting soundly under the authority of God's Word, applying His teachings in submission and obedience, confessing our sins to one another, and praying without ceasing to the Lord, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
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