Earnest Prayer

Have you ever thought about the idea of an Earnest prayer? There’s a lot in scripture about praying earnestly. When we pray earnestly, we’re in the company of many incredible people–Job, Jairus, Elijah, Jesus.

James writes about the importance of earnest prayer within a Christian community; he says:

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” –James 5:16 NLT

According to James, there is great power in sharing with someone else what we’ve done wrong and in praying for one another.

This relates to Israel too:

“The Israelites’ prayer was not only united, but also unfeigned. They had never been more earnest. It wasn’t a religious ritual. They were panicked, and their outburst of prayer was real and raw.” –The Red Sea Rules, by Robert J. Morgan (Rule 4)

When they cried out to God, it was not a recited prayer, nothing they learned in Sunday School, or something they had prayed 1,000 times. They prayed from the depths of who they were. They cried out to God because God was the only one they could cry to.