“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16)
“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “so shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead -since he was about a hundred years old- and that Sarah's womb was also dead.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness.'
The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness -for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
(Romans 4:18-25)
“Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: 'Whoever does these things will live by them.' But the righteousness that is by faith says: 'Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down) or 'Who will descend into the deep?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: if you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, 'Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.'” (Romans 10:5-11)
Romans 10:3-4 says about those who choose righteousness by trying to fulfill the law, “Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
And in Romans 1:17 Paul says, “For in the gospel the righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'”
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary notes about this verse that “It is not from faith to works, as if faith put us into a justified state, and then works kept us in it; but it is all along from faith to faith; it is faith pressing forward, and gaining the victory over unbelief.” [1]
In Romans 9:16-17 Paul says, “It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: 'I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that it is only in personal communion with God that the law is fulfilled. He notes, “There is no fulfillment of the law apart from communion with God, and no communion with God apart from the fulfilment of the law.” [2]
Righteousness is always a gift. [3] Bonhoeffer notes that the righteousness of the disciples consisted in following Christ. He states, “between the disciples and the law stands one who has perfectly fulfilled it, one with whom they live in communion. They are faced not with a law which has never yet been fulfilled, but with one whose demands have already been satisfied. The righteousness it demands is already there, the righteousness of Jesus which submits to the cross because that is what the law demands. This righteousness is therefore not a duty owed, but a perfect and truly personal communion with God, and Jesus not only possesses this righteousness, but is himself the personal embodiment of it. He is the righteousness of the disciples.” [4]
In James 5:16 it says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
Even though I have been taught different, whenever I have heard this verse, somewhere I have thought to myself that I must work hard at being righteous (fulfilling the law in my own self effort) so that my prayers are effective. The more righteous I could be in my own self-effort, following the laws of God, the more God would be pleased with me and the more effective my prayers would be.
However, what James is really saying is that when we by faith, receive as a gift the righteousness of Christ, our prayers are powerful and effective.
In John 14:20 Jesus said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” And in John 16:24 He goes on to say, “In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”
As we are in Christ and receive His righteousness as a gift, we can freely ask for what we need and trust that our prayers are heard by God.
Bonhoeffer writes that “True prayer does not depend on the individual or the whole body of the faithful, but solely upon the knowledge that our heavenly Father knows our needs. That makes God the sole object of our prayers, and frees us from a false confidence in our own prayerful efforts.” He writes, “the kingdom is God's by their fellowship in Jesus Christ, on whom depends the fulfilment of all their prayers.” [5]
“If anyone calls on His name, they will be saved” sings in the background.
O. Hallesby writes that, “Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.” [6]
True prayer, O. Hallesby states, is the fruit of helplessness and faith. He writes, “Helplessness becomes prayer the moment that you go to Jesus and speak candidly and confidently with him about your needs. This is to believe.” [7]
As the blind man asked for sight, the leper to be cleansed, the paralyzed man lowered down by friends, and the woman with the issue of blood reached to Jesus to be made whole, it is in realizing a need and our inability to meet that need in our own sufficiency that we make room for God's power.
O. Hallesby writes that prayer and helplessness our inseparable. He notes that it is our helplessness that makes us strongly dependant upon God. He writes, “Recall the words of Jesus, 'Without me ye can do nothing' (John 15:4). In one single line He tells us here what it takes us a whole lifetime to learn...” [8]
Faith , as O. Hallesby notes, opens the door when Jesus knocks and gives Him access to our “helplessness with all His miracle working powers.” [9]
The blind men who asked Jesus for sight were not Christians for years who had exercised their faith on a regular basis to have built up the faith necessary to be healed. They merely looked to Jesus and asked and then took Him at His word. They believed that He could heal them enough to turn to Him and ask Him to meet them where they were at in all their neediness.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” As People's New Testament Commentary notes, “Faith is the foundation on which all our hopes for the future are built.”
“It's gonna be worth it, I believe this, It's gonna be worth it all” sings in the background.
Prayer is an attitude of heart that knows God can meet our need and desires what is best for us(faith). O Hallesby writes about prayer that, “Prayer is an attitude of our hearts, an attitude of mind. Prayer is a definite attitude of our hearts toward God, and attitude which He in heaven immediately recognizes as prayer, as an appeal to His heart.” [10]
Prayer is an act of the heart in faith. We relate to God as a child relates to a father. We know we are loved so we ask for what we need or for the needs of others. Jesus says in Luke 18:17, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.""
God cares for us and our needs. We don't have to manipulate Him or get some formula right to get Him to act on our behalf. Isaiah 30:18 (AMP) says, "And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you: and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you..."
We need only trust in His goodness and mercy towards us. Too often, rather than asking God for what we need or waiting on God to fulfill our needs as we pray to Him, we try to fill our needs by our own means. We fail to trust, believing that He cares and will supply whatever we lack.
Matthew 7:7-11 says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you; for everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
When we manipulate our circumstances for our own benefit or strive to grasp for what we need to meet our own needs, we fail to open the door for God to respond. We show our unbelief.
In Matthew 13:58, it states, “And He [Jesus] did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”
As many commentary notes, unbelief is the greatest hindrance to the working of miracles. O. Hallesby writes, “Unbelief is something very different from doubt. Unbelief is an attribute of the will and consists of the refusal to believe, that is, refusal to see one's own need, acknowledge one's helplessness, go to Jesus and speak candidly and confidently with Him about one's sin and distress.” [11]
Isaiah 65:24 says, “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” And Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
O. Hallesby writes about these scriptures, “He knocks in order to move us by prayer to open the door and accept the gift which He has already appointed for us.” [12]
Looking back in my own prayer life, I can see where even the things I have had on my heart to carry in prayer have not even been my idea. The things that I am most passionate about in prayer are the very things God has placed on my heart. He knocked, and I answered by being willing to be available to carry what was on His heart.
Ironically, I have then taken the very things God has placed on my heart and thought that I need to work to accomplish them out of my own works of righteousness.
John 3:14-15 says, “"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
Numbers 21:9 said, “And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.”
The Israelites first need to recognize their need (snake bite) and their inability to meet it in their own power (helplessness), but then they also needed to look to the serpent to be healed. Faith is looking to Christ. If one is in unbelief, they will not look and therefore, cannot be healed.
Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 13:13-15, “This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understand; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'”
When someone is working to be righteous by their own self efforts, they will also fail to turn to Christ out of unbelief. What they are looking to as the source to meet their needs is their own ability to be righteous.
This is the very thing that kept the Pharisees out of the kingdom of God. Jesus says in Matthew 5:10, “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Lord, forgive me that I keep turning back to self-efforts that lead to self-righteousness. I feel like the dog who keeps returning to its vomit. I realize that it is by faith and your righteousness, but then I keep trying to achieve your purposes by my own efforts. I work hard at trying to do enough and to get it all right so You will hear me and act. I end up feeling self-righteous, exhausted and resentful about all I am doing for your kingdom when I do this. Please help me to change my ways.
Teach us to come to you as little children, trusting that you provide all we need. You are not only willing to answer our prayers but stand at the door and knock, earnestly waiting, longing and looking to be gracious to us.
1. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary. Located at: http://biblecommenter.com/romans/1-17.htm. Last Accessed: 6/29/10
2-5. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. Touchstone, New York, NY. 1959.
6-13. Hallesby, O. Prayer. Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, MN. 1994.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness.'
The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness -for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
(Romans 4:18-25)
“Moses writes about the righteousness that is by the law: 'Whoever does these things will live by them.' But the righteousness that is by faith says: 'Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down) or 'Who will descend into the deep?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: if you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, 'Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.'” (Romans 10:5-11)
Romans 10:3-4 says about those who choose righteousness by trying to fulfill the law, “Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”
And in Romans 1:17 Paul says, “For in the gospel the righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'”
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary notes about this verse that “It is not from faith to works, as if faith put us into a justified state, and then works kept us in it; but it is all along from faith to faith; it is faith pressing forward, and gaining the victory over unbelief.” [1]
In Romans 9:16-17 Paul says, “It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: 'I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that it is only in personal communion with God that the law is fulfilled. He notes, “There is no fulfillment of the law apart from communion with God, and no communion with God apart from the fulfilment of the law.” [2]
Righteousness is always a gift. [3] Bonhoeffer notes that the righteousness of the disciples consisted in following Christ. He states, “between the disciples and the law stands one who has perfectly fulfilled it, one with whom they live in communion. They are faced not with a law which has never yet been fulfilled, but with one whose demands have already been satisfied. The righteousness it demands is already there, the righteousness of Jesus which submits to the cross because that is what the law demands. This righteousness is therefore not a duty owed, but a perfect and truly personal communion with God, and Jesus not only possesses this righteousness, but is himself the personal embodiment of it. He is the righteousness of the disciples.” [4]
In James 5:16 it says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
Even though I have been taught different, whenever I have heard this verse, somewhere I have thought to myself that I must work hard at being righteous (fulfilling the law in my own self effort) so that my prayers are effective. The more righteous I could be in my own self-effort, following the laws of God, the more God would be pleased with me and the more effective my prayers would be.
However, what James is really saying is that when we by faith, receive as a gift the righteousness of Christ, our prayers are powerful and effective.
In John 14:20 Jesus said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” And in John 16:24 He goes on to say, “In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”
As we are in Christ and receive His righteousness as a gift, we can freely ask for what we need and trust that our prayers are heard by God.
Bonhoeffer writes that “True prayer does not depend on the individual or the whole body of the faithful, but solely upon the knowledge that our heavenly Father knows our needs. That makes God the sole object of our prayers, and frees us from a false confidence in our own prayerful efforts.” He writes, “the kingdom is God's by their fellowship in Jesus Christ, on whom depends the fulfilment of all their prayers.” [5]
“If anyone calls on His name, they will be saved” sings in the background.
O. Hallesby writes that, “Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.” [6]
True prayer, O. Hallesby states, is the fruit of helplessness and faith. He writes, “Helplessness becomes prayer the moment that you go to Jesus and speak candidly and confidently with him about your needs. This is to believe.” [7]
As the blind man asked for sight, the leper to be cleansed, the paralyzed man lowered down by friends, and the woman with the issue of blood reached to Jesus to be made whole, it is in realizing a need and our inability to meet that need in our own sufficiency that we make room for God's power.
O. Hallesby writes that prayer and helplessness our inseparable. He notes that it is our helplessness that makes us strongly dependant upon God. He writes, “Recall the words of Jesus, 'Without me ye can do nothing' (John 15:4). In one single line He tells us here what it takes us a whole lifetime to learn...” [8]
Faith , as O. Hallesby notes, opens the door when Jesus knocks and gives Him access to our “helplessness with all His miracle working powers.” [9]
The blind men who asked Jesus for sight were not Christians for years who had exercised their faith on a regular basis to have built up the faith necessary to be healed. They merely looked to Jesus and asked and then took Him at His word. They believed that He could heal them enough to turn to Him and ask Him to meet them where they were at in all their neediness.
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” As People's New Testament Commentary notes, “Faith is the foundation on which all our hopes for the future are built.”
“It's gonna be worth it, I believe this, It's gonna be worth it all” sings in the background.
Prayer is an attitude of heart that knows God can meet our need and desires what is best for us(faith). O Hallesby writes about prayer that, “Prayer is an attitude of our hearts, an attitude of mind. Prayer is a definite attitude of our hearts toward God, and attitude which He in heaven immediately recognizes as prayer, as an appeal to His heart.” [10]
Prayer is an act of the heart in faith. We relate to God as a child relates to a father. We know we are loved so we ask for what we need or for the needs of others. Jesus says in Luke 18:17, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.""
God cares for us and our needs. We don't have to manipulate Him or get some formula right to get Him to act on our behalf. Isaiah 30:18 (AMP) says, "And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you: and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you..."
We need only trust in His goodness and mercy towards us. Too often, rather than asking God for what we need or waiting on God to fulfill our needs as we pray to Him, we try to fill our needs by our own means. We fail to trust, believing that He cares and will supply whatever we lack.
Matthew 7:7-11 says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you; for everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
When we manipulate our circumstances for our own benefit or strive to grasp for what we need to meet our own needs, we fail to open the door for God to respond. We show our unbelief.
In Matthew 13:58, it states, “And He [Jesus] did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”
As many commentary notes, unbelief is the greatest hindrance to the working of miracles. O. Hallesby writes, “Unbelief is something very different from doubt. Unbelief is an attribute of the will and consists of the refusal to believe, that is, refusal to see one's own need, acknowledge one's helplessness, go to Jesus and speak candidly and confidently with Him about one's sin and distress.” [11]
Isaiah 65:24 says, “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” And Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
O. Hallesby writes about these scriptures, “He knocks in order to move us by prayer to open the door and accept the gift which He has already appointed for us.” [12]
Looking back in my own prayer life, I can see where even the things I have had on my heart to carry in prayer have not even been my idea. The things that I am most passionate about in prayer are the very things God has placed on my heart. He knocked, and I answered by being willing to be available to carry what was on His heart.
Ironically, I have then taken the very things God has placed on my heart and thought that I need to work to accomplish them out of my own works of righteousness.
John 3:14-15 says, “"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
Numbers 21:9 said, “And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.”
The Israelites first need to recognize their need (snake bite) and their inability to meet it in their own power (helplessness), but then they also needed to look to the serpent to be healed. Faith is looking to Christ. If one is in unbelief, they will not look and therefore, cannot be healed.
Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 13:13-15, “This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understand; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'”
When someone is working to be righteous by their own self efforts, they will also fail to turn to Christ out of unbelief. What they are looking to as the source to meet their needs is their own ability to be righteous.
This is the very thing that kept the Pharisees out of the kingdom of God. Jesus says in Matthew 5:10, “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Lord, forgive me that I keep turning back to self-efforts that lead to self-righteousness. I feel like the dog who keeps returning to its vomit. I realize that it is by faith and your righteousness, but then I keep trying to achieve your purposes by my own efforts. I work hard at trying to do enough and to get it all right so You will hear me and act. I end up feeling self-righteous, exhausted and resentful about all I am doing for your kingdom when I do this. Please help me to change my ways.
Teach us to come to you as little children, trusting that you provide all we need. You are not only willing to answer our prayers but stand at the door and knock, earnestly waiting, longing and looking to be gracious to us.
"Though [we] but dust, I pray,
Before God standing,
Not asking pleasure's way,
Nor gold demanding;
But greater things I ask,
From God requesting
No less than that He give
To [us] that [we] may live
Life everlasting." [13]
- anonymous
1. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary. Located at: http://biblecommenter.com/romans/1-17.htm. Last Accessed: 6/29/10
2-5. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. Touchstone, New York, NY. 1959.
6-13. Hallesby, O. Prayer. Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, MN. 1994.
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