Be fervent

"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." James 5:16 


A righteous person is simply someone who prays in faith anyways, so our prayers will be effective and fervent just by us simply choosing to pray in faith. Not to pray empty words or perfectly sounding sentences, but simply to converse with our Father just as a child would.  We are told over and over in scripture that the Lord desires us to commune with him, to lay before him our thoughts, worries, requests, desires, fears, and thanksgiving and know that he is ALWAYS listening and He ALWAYS wants to hear MORE.  We should be like a child who is eager to tell our father a story about our day at school. Sometimes I often wonder if I should ramble on to the Lord.. when he already knows what's up.  In fact, he knows much MORE than just what's up, but he knows what's up next!  

I think the same can be true of a Father listening to his 6 year old daughter talk about her day at school.  Although the story might be predictable and insignificant, the father always delights in listening to his child.  How much more then will our Heavenly Father delight in listening to us. 

In  Matthew 18:20 is says "Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am among them." I know I have talked about this before, but I just love the imagery of siblings going to their father together to ask for something.  Although the father is always willing to listen to his child's request, he is more likely to take the kids out for ice cream if all four of them come and ask him together at the same time.  I think the same can be true of our heavenly Father.  I am not saying that  the power of one person's intimate silent prayer is any less than communal prayer.   Rather, I am simply suggesting a balance between the two.  Their is something divine about joining hands with our brothers and sisters in Christ and going to are Father together in prayer.  

The definition of "fervent" is: 

a: having or displaying a passionate intensity

b: extremely hot; glowing

I think that we should be fervent in our prayers by both definitions of the word. Our inward hearts should be set afire by the love of Christ to the point where our outward lives are glowing  with the radiance of His love.  We should not only "have" passionate intensity in our prayers, but we should also "display" it.  I think one way that we can display fervency in our prayers it by praying out-loud together with others.