Prayer Is More Powerful Than Kungfu!

(Today's devotion is brought to you by Paul)

Scripture Reference: James 5:16 (NKJV)

"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."

I especially love the Chinese version of this verse. It means "the kind of power that a righteous man's prayer releases, is impactful and effective".

I remember when I was very young, I used to be so fascinated watching all those kungfu shows, the period dramas. Especially those where a ray of colour would be beamed from one martial arts expert's hand, and it would be "fired" towards the enemy's body, and the enemy would be hurt by the internal prowess and bounce backwards about a metre or two.

As I meditate on this verse, I was thinking to myself, so what counts as righteousness and WHO, is the righteous man who can make prayers like this?

"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe..." (Romans 3:21-22, NKJV)

James 5:16 tells us that only the righteous man can make such effective, fervent prayers. And Romans 3:21 and 22 say that this righteousness is from God. Great, now there is a place in which we can get righteousness, and that is from God.

But that's not all. Verse 22 says that it comes through faith in Christ. So in short, we need to receive the righteousness of God through faith, by believing in Jesus!

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

Brothers and sisters, as you read more and more of our blog, you will realize that our answer to all these, is the Word! Without the Word, you won't receive faith because it comes by hearing the Word of God. The very day we accept Christ into our lives, is the very day that we have accepted the righteousness of God into us.

Isa 43:25 tells us that God forgives our sins and remembers them no more. After we acknowledge the blood of Jesus has cleansed us of our iniquities, God looks at us as though we have no sin. YOU are the one who have all the rights and authority now, to make effective, fervent prayers! Or in the Chinese Bible, impactful and powerful prayers.

Lift up your hands and make the prayers that you need today. Want to see the devil get hurt by the beaming powers that are released from your hand like the kungfu show that I watched? You can do it today. Just raise both hands towards heaven, and start making your prayers and petitions to the Lord today!

(Today's devotion was brought to you by Paul)