Prayer has the power to change lives and to change the course of history. As American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, President Franklin Roosevelt called for our nation to unite in prayer. He offered a prayer to prepare each citizen for the road ahead. “Let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons where so-ever they may be. O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee.” The victory that followed on June 6, 1944 known as D-Day began the march to Berlin. Eighteen months later, WWII was over and one of the world’s greatest evils had been defeated. The prayers of a nation had been a powerful force. Prayers changes things, prayer changes lives, prayer grants us the protected power of God.

I. The Power of prayer

1. The greatest gift we can give our nation on its 249^th Anniversary is the power of our prayers. Our prayers have power beyond our imagination. The English poet Tennyson wrote, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world can dream of.”

The prayer of God’s people is the greatest untapped resource available to us. It formed the foundation of our country as our forefathers contemplated the way of independence. It is equally important today as we chart the course for future generations. The past is a mirror to our future success when we consider the resolve of our nation to survive. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. — 2 Ch.7:14

There is an evil undermining of our nation and the only people powerful enough to change this are Believers who know and practice the Christian faith. It is now, more than ever that America needs the power of prayer. Prayer, humility and repentance leads to righteousness that exalts a nation.

Righteousness exalted a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

However our prayers must be effective as James 5:16 illustrates.

 II. The Hindrances to Prayer – Verse 16

1. The Bible is saying that to be able to successfully pray for one another for physical or spiritual healing is conditioned upon our willingness to confess our faults to one another. A.T. Robertson, the great Greek scholar, says that in James 5:16 the odd tense of the Greek verb confess in this verse implies group confession rather than private confession. It is confession “ones to others” not “one to one other.” Confession can often be public. To pray effectively we need to know the hindrances to prayers.

2. Seven major hindrances to our prayer life

1. Matthew 6:7-8 – Vain Repetition in the area of prayer.

2. Luke 18:9-14 – Pride

3. Mark 11: 25 – An unforgiving Spirit

4. Isaiah 59:1-2 – Un-confessed sin ***

5. James 1:5-7 – Lack of faith.

6. Proverbs 21:13- Lack of patience and compassion for poor & needy –

*** The story is told about some Boeing employees on the field who decided to steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in getting it out of the plant and home. They forgot about one thing. The raft comes with an emergency locator that is automatically activated when the raft is inflated.

So, when they took the raft out for a camping trip on the River, they were quite surprised by a Coast Guard helicopter homing in on the emergency locator that was activated the moment they inflated the raft. “They are no longer Boeing employees.”

Trying to hide your sin from God is impossible. He’s knows about it even before you do it!

7. I Peter 3:7 – Improper relation between husband and wife.

In this context weaker aus-then-ace vessel speaks of the woman’s physical weakness in comparison to men. Men are generally stronger physically. As Peter brought in the idea of the woman’s feminine nature with the words the wife, the feminine nature and how a husband should respond to it.

Therefore, a godly husband recognizes whatever limitations his wife has physically and he does not expect more from her than is appropriate.

III. An Example of a Great man of Prayer Vv. 17-18

1. James now moves on to give an illustration of a great man of prayer, Elijah. During a period of judgment, God held back the rain from the nation of Israel for three and a half years. The nation of Israel needed “showers of blessings”, and when Elijah fell down on his knees and asked God, the rains came and the nation was saved.

2. My friend that is what we as a nation need most today. We need men and women who will cry out to the Lord for a spiritual awakening in our land.

God works in the same way today as he did in those past century days, and he will respond to our prayers in very much the same way. That does not mean that everything we pray for will be granted. Sometimes God overrules our prayers. But prayer does other things as well, even when the things for which we pray are not granted.

 Conclusion:

R. A. Torrey lamented the average believer’s indifference to prayer by writing: How little time the average Christian spends in prayer! We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. This chapter highlights for us several things that prayer does, and they are basic for us to learn today.