Scripture teaches us that the “prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” One of the problems with experiencing the power of prayer is the issue of righteousness. Righteousness is not something that begins with us. Truth is that “He who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.” Righteousness is not something that we cause, but it is something that we cultivate.
Living a righteous life is the result of doing what we are hearing. A righteous life is one lived in full appreciation of the grace of Christ in our life. We must appreciate his righteousness with the way we live not just the words we say or the songs we sing. Sure our voices in speech and song must declare the work of Christ to all around us and must declare the praise of the One who has redeemed us, but living a righteous life is so much more than that.
So back to powerful prayer. I believe it is a man (meaning a person) that accepts and understands the righteousness of Christ in his life and lives out the righteousness in what he does that is powerful in prayer. It is one of those doing things. We know we are to pray, but too often we don’t. Many of us know how we should pray, but we don’t.
The question comes back to why. Why don’t we do what we know? Truth is doing what we know is difficult for many reasons. Many do not pray because the do not feel righteous. Others do not pray powerfully and effectively because they feel too righteous. Yet others do not pray because they simply do not see the value of it in their quest for righteousness.
I have been guilty of all three reasons and all have led back to a struggle in righteousness. The more we stray from the reason we pray the less the prayer is powerful and effective. Righteousness is not a religious thing, it is a real thing. It is a reality we can experience when we quit seeing religion and we start seeing Jesus.
I share this with you for the background of an event in my life I feel led to share. I do not have the best prayer life in the world. Truth is I pray for others a lot. I pray for Fellowship Church and my family and the lost. I love praying for my wife and my kids. I love to pray and ask God to allow me to do something well.
What I never really pray about is me. I do not pray about who I am. I ask God lots about what I am doing, but little about who I am becoming because no matter how much I preach it to others I still struggle with seeing that as my work and not his. I feel responsible for being a righteous man, like I could some how change myself.
This has been a truth I have grappled with for a long time, but God is really working in me on right now. I have always desired to please God. I want my life to matter. I desire to be successful. The problem is how I define that.
So this morning, I just prayed. I stopped talking and listened. I was not asking for instructions about where to lead the church nor what to say in a sermon nor the words to speak to a straying sinner or a grieving human. I was simply still and allowed God to speak to me about me.
And you know what. He did.
Today I feel more righteous. Not self-righteous. Just righteous. I feel ready to take on the world. I might share exactly what he said in a later blog, and I might not. The issue is this. Today I did what I heard.
Don’t stop there though. The conclusion of this type of movement of God is not that I would feel better about myself. Experiencing the righteousness of Christ is a gift for me from him. In that experience I interceded on behalf of many people. I pray that prayer will be righteous and effective, but I know because I allowed God to give me his righteousness first that I boldly walked into the throne room of Grace and made my requests known. I do not know how to measure the power of a prayer but this morning I fresh and new experienced what it feels like.
Righteousness is not about you. Nor is it about me. Doing what you hear is not about us, either. It is about God and his glory and his work in others, but the real issue is that we have to allow him to start in us. The problem is that some of us are only focused on the work he is doing in others while others are only focused on the work he is doing in us.
We both must learn. DO what you HEAR!
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