HOW TO PRAY EFFECTIVELY
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16
Prayer is a very important weapon and way of life for every Christian. Christian race starts with prayer, grows with prayer and even ends with prayer. The sad case is that as more Christians are embanking on more prayers, as there are more programs for prayers, more prayer meetings, prayer grounds and mountains; as there are more people taking interest in praying to God, but there are less effective prayers. More people praying, more prayers being prayed but less prayers being effective and so we are seeing little effect of our large amount of prayers. It is not about praying that matters, it is not about more prayers that avails much, it is only effective prayer. So, before you throw yourself into more prayer, take time to learn how to pray effective prayer.

E F F E C T I V E – P R A Y E R
(1) Turn Righteous. To pray effectively, you must turn to a righteous life. This starts when you repent and turn away from your sins, then turn new righteous life in Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not just fasting that makes prayer to be effective nor going to a big man of God; it’s living a righteous life, confessing and forsaking every sin, no matter how small. Clearing away any spot of sinful blemish and freely forgiving others is righteous living. Only the prayer of the righteous avails much. Let’s first take more time to grow in righteous living in Christ Jesus before we take more time to pray.

(2) Tune to Praises. When you totally dedicate your life to Jesus, you have assurance that what you ask God through Jesus, He will answer; this confidence makes you to do more praise unto God in your prayer time than petitioning. For the prayer of a righteous person in Christ to be effective, he must learn to praise and worship God more before and after requesting.

(3) Take First Thing First. To pray effectively, you must be a righteous man and take the kingdom of God and His righteousness as your first priority. In your prayer life, you should take your righteous living first, spend more time to pray for God’s grace to live righteous life; confess your spiritual weakness to God and ask for strength to overcome sin and self. Then the little time remaining you should spend to pray on your physical, financial, marital, material, medical and other needs.

Do you wonder why spending more time to praise and pray for purity while you have a lot of urgent needs and issues? God knows all your needs even before you ask, what you need is more righteous living and praising God. Take more time to praise God and pray on your life of purity than praying on your problem, because it is not much prayer on your problem that will solve your problem but effective prayer of the righteous.
Lastly, don’t waste your precious time praying against witches, wizards, they are under your feet when you praise God and live righteous life, you just need to command them in Jesus name and they flee.

“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

Praise God!