three words that make a difference...

my dad was a traveling evangelist for at least half of my at home life. we would start church services on wednesday and then hold a service every night and two on sunday through two sundays. then we would leave and go to another church and do the same thing. so a big part of my time as a child was spent in a car on the road. my dad and my sister and i would sing in every service and he would preach. i loved it.

one of the things about this was that i heard the same messages over and over and over and i loved it. my dad was an awesome preacher.

one of his messages was from the 5th chapter of james the last part of verse 16. here is what it says in the king james version, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. that was the version that was used most 50 years ago when I was a child.

now in the message he said that he used to love to diagram sentences in english class and that if this sentence was diagrammed there would be three adjectives that made the difference in the meaning of this sentence. and the three adjectives are: effectual, fervent and righteous. now the sentence isn't the prayer of a man availeth much but that is what a lot of people think today. all i have to do is pray and i will get what i want. no the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

even as CHRISTians we think that prayer is just something that we say at the beginning of a meal holding everyone's hands or right before we go to bed or as a ceremony in church but that kind of repetitious ceremonial prayer is not effective in moving the heart of GOD. it makes us feel good but that is not what prayer is all about.

now effectual means it effects or influences something or someone. it is the kind of prayer that makes things happen. (ncv). now if what i'm praying doesn't effect me move me then how is it going to effect GOD? in other words are you serious and specific about what you are praying?

then fervent which means having great emotion or zeal. i'll be honest, when I heard and saw how fervent andrew was in his love for my daughter stefanie, i knew that he would take care of her and i gave him my blessing to marry my one and only daughter. his fervency told me she mattered to him and that moved me to say yes.

does what you pray matter to you? and then righteous. i'm not talking about perfection. i'm talking about righteousness. righteousness is your standing before GOD when you became a believer. but GOD also want us to have a clean life after the fact. psalm 66.18 (ncv), david said, if i had known of any sin in my heart, the LORD would not have listened to me.

in other words, if i am willfully and knowingly doing something i know is displeasing to GOD and say, "GOD, i'm going to continue doing this but, by the way, help me out." it's like saying "dad, will you loan me the keys to the car, but i'm never going to do a single thing you ask." we need to have a clean, righteous life before him.

effectual, fervent, righteous. just some thoughts from the front porch...