Man Of Prayer

Devotional Reading: 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. James 5:17‭-‬18 ESV

Naturally, we are required to live in a goal-oriented manner. What are we living for? What do we do this and that for? We set goals consciously and unconsciously. We set goals in business and careers. We set goals in our family’s finances. There are things we want to achieve and we set goals to motivate our accomplishments.

It is often difficult to apply the same thing for spiritual matters because of the difficulty to quantify or measure it in a concrete way. We cannot say, “I want to progress from 6 to 8 on a spiritual scale.” Our spiritual health cannot be measured this way. However, it is still true that we must have a spiritual purpose in life. We must become people of faith and prayer just like Elijah.

Yes, we know that Elijah was not a perfect person. He also experienced despair, fear, and doubt. However, the prominent characteristic of his walk with God as a whole is not these negative things, but faith. He learned to trust God completely in his life. He prayed confidently for God’s power and saw the evidence of God’s power both through the burning fire and the small still voice he heard. When he prayed – he fully trusted the Lord that He could do great things.

We need to learn like Elijah — to be a man of prayer with great faith. Elijah’s faith and prayer life inspire us to live this way. This goal is not a dream and something impossible to come true. However, this is also not something that we can achieve easily in a short time. Maybe, we need to keep on fighting until we become real people of faith and prayer. God’s glory that awaits us is more than what we can imagine.

May we remain zealous to grow in understanding and practice of faith and prayer. We do not become weak amid this struggle. May we continue expecting God to do great deeds, not because of the results of our spiritual pursuits, but because He is indeed a big, great, mighty, and good God.

Prayer and Confession
I choose to be a man of faith and prayer and I remain zealous to grow in my understanding and practice faith and prayer. Amen!

Further Reading: James 5:16:20, Mark 11:22-24