Are Your Prayers Fervent?

James 5:16 - Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 

I returned home this evening from a most wonderful weekend. It’s hard to put into words…let’s just say I went to work in a prayer war room for 72 hours.  I shared the time with some wonderful women in 3 hour shifts….and saw God move in mighty ways the whole time we were there. Before returning home tonight…. I got to share the sweetest reunion of a mother and daughter.

I will tell you that I got way more than I gave the last few days. From the moment I found this verse in a box of mixed inspirational scriptures….I knew that God had brought me there to teach me how to be both more fervent and more righteous in my prayer life.

Fervent is defined as having or displaying passionate intensity.  Passion is defined as showing strong feelings or beliefs…and intensity is defined as the power or strength you use.  So I had to immediately admit that I wasn’t up to the standards James wrote in this simple verse. I hadn’t even packed my new index cards…already failing in my newest vow to improve.

The women in our war room group helped renew a new passion for fervent prayer in my life. One gave me a new personal journal….another a pin to remind me who I prayed too. Others modeled for me the continued spirit of prayer…and still others demonstrated how to allow God to place the perfect words in our spirit for each need we lift up.  He even allowed me to see the precious results when we wait on his timing to answer our prayers.

Father ….thank you for the reminder that fervent prayers availeth much in a world that seems to have gone crazy.  Forgive me for allowing the routines and business of life to dilute the prayers I lift to you. Help me to intensify the seeds of passion and fervency that you planted in me this weekend. Fan into fire the gift of prayer in my heart…so I can be a more effective prayer warrior for others and myself. Amen.