James 5:16b

            “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” The effective fervent prayer is one that is done by exerting yourself in the prayer. You have to be involved in your prayer wrestling for the result. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus told the disciples “Stay here and watch with Me” (Matthew 26:38b). After Jesus went off and prayed, He returned to find them sleeping and said, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:40b-41). Yes, we all want to pray, but how many Christians actually do it with fervency? I know because I’ve been shown this by God in my prayer life. Let’s go back to Gethsemane and see what fervent prayer looks like as we watch the scene with Jesus praying. “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). I’m not saying we need to see sweat like great drops of blood, but how many of us pray with agony and more earnestly? The enemy isn’t worried about our prayers because he knows we are so distracted when we pray we don’t even finish our prayers or we just come with our list. Look at one more scene from Gethsemane as Jesus came and found the disciples sleeping when they should have been praying. “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? One Hour, how many of us make it past 10 minutes, or even 5 minutes? Our spirits may be willing but we need to exercise our flesh and remove distractions from our prayer lives including our drifting off in thought, answering texts, calls, and not waiting upon the Lord to renew our strength. It’s more like a one-way phone call, we call, give our requests, and hang up. Try praying this way, first, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name” (Psalm 100:4), then confession, then praying for those that you told you would pray for, then pray your request and end with a heart of praise and thanksgiving. If you are in Christ Jesus, you are righteous, but are you praying effective, fervent prayers?