Pray Until . . .

Ahab went to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees.

1 Kings 18:42

James 5:16-18 uses this incident in Elijah’s life to illustrate the promise that prayer holds: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.”

To get the full impact of what James is teaching, we have to put the Old and New Testaments together. The story to which James refers is found in 1 Kings 17. James says Elijah prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain. But the drought was God’s idea, so when Elijah announced the drought, he was acting as God’s spokesman.

God had sent the drought. What had Elijah done? He had prayed for the drought. So, (1) God says it, (2) Elijah prays it, and (3) God performs it. Elijah’s prayers released the will of God on earth. God calls us into a cooperative venture with him, releasing his power and provision in response to our prayers.

Next, Elijah heard from God. He knew that God was ready to end the drought. He was so certain of this that he declared it publicly, and then, while Ahab went off to eat and drink, Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel to pray.

Elijah knew that prayer was the conduit through which the will of God comes from heaven to earth, causing the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Father, fill my heart with your desires so that when I pray out of the overflow of my heart, I am praying your will and your heart’s desires.

There is such a thing as coming into such a sweet relation to the will of God that we are fused into oneness with it. His will becomes ours, and He gladly sets us free to carry our own wishes—they being His first and then ours.

G. Granger Fleming(ca. 1866–1922), South African architect and author