James 5:16 This is obviously a conditional statement of many facets here... It is not simply effectual or fervent or just a righteous man's (meaning mankind for you ladies) prayers that produces results. Apparently, it is showing ALL the ingredients to get results in your prayers! I am all ears for this! I want my prayers to have results and I think I am learning something here so I want to share what I have found so far with you.
First, I must say that I am not a very lengthy prayer person... I have not been exactly a very consistent prayer person most of my life until the last couple years. I am now learning that I have been praying incorrectly in some ways. This may sound self-defeating, but really it is not! I am simply sharing what God is showing me about me because I asked Him to help me see myself - so I can allow Him to can work Godly changes in my life.
Lord willing, I am going to address this topic in a few posts... The focus of this post is studying the biblical definition of a righteous man. I started researching this a few years ago and what I have found started a change in me that prepared me for what was about to happen a year or so later. I learned that a righteous man is NOT necessarily a man that looks/behaves righteously as you or I might think. In fact, we find that the Bible says that a righteous man fails ALL THE TIME!!! Proverbs 24:16 says, "a righteous man falls seven times". The number seven represents a the number of completeness, perfection, or whole. This means part of a righteous man's whole/complete makeup is that he is fallen. But it does not end there because the same can be said of an unrighteous man - he is fallen too! So what is the difference? I am glad you asked! The distinct difference of a righteous man is that he GETS BACK UP! So maybe an unrighteous man would be the converse definition: a man who wallows in his ways of folly or foolishness and does nothing to repent or strive to get back up. This brings the words like "upstanding" or "upright" to describe a person to new meaning doesn't it? This was great encouragement for me personally because I never felt like a righteous person in spite of my reputation as a "goody two shoes" growing up. I was raised very ultra conservative by most standards. I was told by kids in public school that I was 'like an angel' when they learned how I lived my life (no TV, no sexual activity before marriage, no listening to worldly/secular music, no dancing, etc), yet I knew what kinds of thoughts, inward struggles and things that were in my heart that I dared not tell anyone out of fear that I would be seen as I was! Scriptures like "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he" (Proverbs 23:7) haunted me! I lived in condemnation until I started seeking, learning, and then understanding God's Word. The race is not given to the swiftest, but those who endure to the end (Eccl. 9:11, Matt. 10:22, Mark 13:13).
I believe John the Baptist go it right on a lot of things, since Jesus said that he was the greatest man who ever lived (Luke 7:28)!! One thing that John said about himself in relationship to Jesus: "He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:28-30) tells us that we must focus on Jesus first. By doing this, I believe it automatically enables us to decrease ourselves. If we focus on decreasing ourselves, then we are focusing on something other than Christ which is simply ourselves - this is incorrect! We are instructed throughout the scriptures (Hebrews 12:2, Matthew 6:33, Isaiah 45:22, Colossians 3:1-3) to seek God and HIS Kingdom FIRST in our lives - in every part of our lives. This goes back to the Greatest Commandment to Love the Lord with ALL our heart, soul, strength and mind (Luke 10:27)! When we pray, he wants us to pray for our needs (not greeds), concerns, and forgiveness (as we forgive others), but after we put Him and His kingdom in the proper place in our hearts - first place (not among top three, five or ten).
When we seek/trust Him in spirit (the gift of the holy spirit, grace and the cross) and honesty (mourn - or repent - that we are sinners that are in constant need of Him) this faith is counted unto us as righteousness! (Luke 18:10-14, Romans 4:5, 22-25). I could never earn righteousness alone and God knows that there are no righteous, no not one - except Jesus Christ who fulfilled/atoned for our sins. Thank you Jesus!
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