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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Praying in a Crisis

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Read | James 5:13-18

Scripture says that “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16 NKJV). Effective—that is exactly what we want our prayers to be, especially in a crisis. When we meet God’s requirements, we can be confident that He’ll not only hear our concerns but will also act on them in accordance with His purposes.

Requirement #1—Fervent prayer. Motivated by a deeply burdened heart, fervent prayers are filled with passion and a strong sense of personal helplessness. They also have a narrow focus on some specific difficulty about which we care deeply. Scripture calls this type of prayer “laboring earnestly” (Col. 4:12).

Requirement #2—Righteousness. As soon as we place our trust in the Savior, we become rightly related to God as His children. At that moment, we are permanently sealed with the Holy Spirit and are declared righteous forever because of our position in Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:9). While salvation is by faith rather than by deeds (Eph. 2:8-9), genuine faith will result in an obedient lifestyle and good works (James 2:26). If we willingly and knowingly engage in sin, then we are not living righteously and our prayers will not be effective.

When the Lord hears an impassioned prayer, He knows who is praying. If it is a righteous person whose life reflects God’s ways, Scripture promises the Holy Spirit will begin His divine work.

God responds with great power to the prayers of even one righteous person. That person can be you!

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – A True and Loyal Friend      

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You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. —Romans 5:6–8

Two men camping in the forest were enjoying their morning coffee when they suddenly spotted a very large, hungry grizzly bear lumbering toward them. One of the men quickly pulled on his running shoes. “Do you actually think you can outrun that grizzly bear?” his friend asked.

“I don’t need to,” he replied. “All I have to do is outrun you.”

We’ve all had friends like that, haven’t we? At the first threat of danger or hardship or difficulty, they’re out the back door. So what makes for true friendship? It has been said that a true friend is one who walks in when others walk out. Thankfully, there have been people in my life who have stood by me and have been honest friends. But there’s one thing of which I’m confident: I have found a true and loyal friend in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ offers His friendship to us. In fact, the New Testament goes so far as to say that we have been called by God the Father into fellowship with His Son (see 1 Corinthians 1:9). But is it all one way? Do we really expect a friendship without a response on our part? A genuine relationship, obviously, is made up of two people committing themselves to one another. I can extend friendship to you, but until you return it to me, I can’t legitimately say we’re really friends.

Jesus demonstrated His willingness to have a friendship with us by what He did for us. He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). Jesus forever proved just how dedicated He was to us when He did just that.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Why “Good” Isn’t Good Enough

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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. —Romans 3:23

A self-righteous person doesn’t think he needs forgiveness. A self-righteous person doesn’t think she needs Jesus. A self-righteous person will say, “You go and preach that gospel in the prisons and on the streets and to the criminals. But don’t bother with me. I am an educated and intelligent person. I am a moral person.”

But the Bible says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, . . . that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5, 7).

Self-righteous people are different from what I would call garden-variety sinners. Self-righteous people are kind people. They are considerate people. They may volunteer and help out. They do benevolent things. We all know people like this. In fact, I have met some non-Christians who are nicer than some Christians I know.

It isn’t wrong to say there are good people in this world because there are. The Bible doesn’t dispute that. But the Bible does say that no one is good enough to get to heaven. We don’t get to heaven on the basis of niceness. Heaven is not for perfect people; it is for forgiven people.

We see a classic example of this in John’s gospel. In John 3, we find Nicodemus, who was a religious guy, a moral guy. But then in John 4 there is the Samaritan woman, an immoral person who was living in sin. What do these two have in common? They both encountered Jesus. And they both believed in Jesus.

This reminds us that everyone needs Jesus—both the moral and the immoral, both the down-and-outer and the up-and-outer.

Everyone needs Him.