An Effective Prayer

God's favor can turn the heart of the king. God's favor can supernaturally promote you. God's favor can cause your enemies to bless you. God's favor can make a way out of no way, and God's favor can supply your every need. And we see an example of this right here in the text. I'm gonna show this and then I'll be out of your way. If you go back to Nehemiah two five through nine, you'll see when Nehemiah asked for three things that he didn't deserve. The king gave it to him and that's grace. [00:21:31] (39 seconds)  #GodsFavorMoves

And if you're not careful, that's when apathy, discouragement, and disappointment will begin to take roots in our hearts and minds and cause us to become ineffective. And if we focus too much on the distractions and take our eyes off God, the devil can cause us to believe that prayer doesn't work. And that's what the goal of the enemy is, to make us ineffective by creating circumstances in our lives that contradict God's words and promises that have already been declared for us. But this morning, I wanna encourage you to know that prayer still works. Prayer still works. [00:09:37] (47 seconds)  #PrayerStillWorks

But church, when we pray and put our trust in God, God will show up and deliver us. He'll show us that he can supply our every need and able to do more than we could ever ask or think. And sometimes, church, we might not know what to pray for, but Nehemiah teaches us that how we pray is more important than what we pray. How we pray reveals the posture of our heart, our heart's intent, and our faith. What we pray reveals what we need, but God already knows what we need. So if we approach him the right way, he will take care of our needs. [00:20:12] (45 seconds)  #PrayerPostureMatters

So Nehemiah believed that god was greater than his circumstances, and he believed that God had the power to turn this situation around. So when we find ourselves church, distressed and faced with the world's problems, we shouldn't put all our trust at bay because the truth is so so many do. Trusting in their own power, trusting in their own human wisdom, trusting in their power and ability to turn their situation around as if God has nothing to do with it. But if God isn't in it, you can trust and believe that whatever you think you gain, you're gonna lose. [00:19:21] (46 seconds)  #GodOverCircumstances

And when a person, a people, or a nation refuse to humble themselves before God, essentially, you're telling God, I've done no wrong. You're telling God, I have nothing to be sorry for. And that church is the definition of pride. And the word tells us that pride comes before what? Destruction. And I don't know about you, but I can't forget where the Lord has brought me from because the Lord Church has brought me a mighty long way. So I have to remain humble because it's only by his grace that we are saved, by his mercy that he beheld the punishment we do deserve. [00:15:42] (47 seconds)  #HumilityOverPride

But as Christians, we have been given access to the same power and authority as the high priest. The same power and authority as that high priest. We can go boldly before the throne of grace with our prayers on behalf of our families, our church, our jobs, our communities, and our nation. But if we're honest, church, I know at least for me, sometimes when we pray, I mean, same things don't seem to happen as soon as we think or we don't get immediate results or sometimes it may seem that we don't get results at all, we can become discouraged and begin to feel as though we're just going through the motions. [00:08:54] (44 seconds)  #AccessToTheThrone

Nehemiah shows us that when we humble ourselves, pray with the right intent, trust God, God will show us favor. And you see favor, church, is different from grace. Grace is undeserved, a gift from God. God shows us all grace each and every day because he blesses us even when we don't deserve it. But when God shows you favor, what you'll see is God's grace in action moving and working in the middle of your circumstance. [00:20:57] (34 seconds)  #FavorInAction

And the bible gives us several examples of men and women of God who prayed and their prayers were effective. They prayed and God would move mightily and sometimes immediately on their behalf. The apostle pays apostle James reminded us that these saints of God were human beings just like us. James five sixteen and eighteen says, the prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain. It did not rain in the land for three and a half years. [00:10:25] (33 seconds)  #BiblicalPrayerPower