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James 5:16 — “The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness.”

One of the defining hallmarks of a “righteous person” is that they maintain an exclusive reliance on God to make all the difference.  And if we can say that no one can do anything more positively effective for this world than what is done in prayer, then that would explain why a righteous person commits so much time to it.

So let's ask the question, what makes for effective prayer? What does exclusive reliance upon God look like in prayer? Three words come to mind. First of all, the word

1. Faith.  That is, knowing that Jesus hears your prayer, and knowing that he is more than ready and willing to answer it.

The second word is

1. Love. In this context, we could say love is an attitude of complete agreement with Jesus because his very nature is love. So, along with him, we passionately want the very best for that person or situation we are praying for regardless of what his answer may end up looking like to us.

And the third word is

1. Perseverance. That is, we pray incessantly and never, ever give up regardless of anything we see or don’t see.

The result? Great effectiveness.