How to impact time and eternity

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”  James 5:16b

To impact time and eternity, PRAY.

But there are conditions.

1.  Be a righteous person.  How?  Believe in God.  Or more specifically, trust Jesus.  Trust Him because of who He is and because of what He has done.  He is God in the flesh, completely God and completely human.  He died in our place and rose to give us a new beginning.  If you trust this, God considers you righteous for two reasons.

a)  He forgives all of your sins because Jesus paid the penalty for them:  death.  There is one penalty for disobeying God—The Death Penalty.  But Jesus died, so we don’t have to.  Because God pardons us of our crimes, it is as if we never committed any crimes, or evil actions, or acts of disobedience to God.  God declares us innocent, not guilty, as if we’ve never been guilty.

b)  We are reborn.  We receive a new spirit, a new life, a new identity. This new person is a child of God, and has never sinned against God. 

So to be righteous, trust in Jesus, and live according to this trust, or faith.  Faith in God is real righteousness.

2.  Pray in agreement with God’s will.  It is written, “If we ask anything according to God’s will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we’ve received what we asked of God.”  A righteous person, by definition, only wants God’s will, because he totally trusts in God only.  She does not trust herself at all!

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful:  Very capable of bringing about changes and actions on earth from heaven.

But not only this, the righteous person’s prayer brings about specific actions and specific changes.  In other words, it accomplishes the goal it sets out to accomplish:  It is effective!

Because I’m sleepy, I ask for energy to go to work for my family.  And God gives it to me!

Because of anxiety, I ask God to relieve me and give me peace.  And He gives it to me!  (Even if circumstances don’t change.)

To powerfully and effectively impact time and eternity: PRAY!