Effectual Fervent Prayer

Another theme in the book of James is the need for fervent prayer. Best-known among Latter-day Saints is the verse that inspired Joseph Smith to go into the grove and pray: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” (James 1:5-6). When we read this passage we don’t typically continue to verse six, but I have to wonder if Joseph was also inspired by that verse when he was overcome with the powers of darkness as he prayed that spring morning in 1820. He wrote, “Immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.” But he did not give up; instead, he kept asking “in faith, nothing wavering” even amidst this darkness that had come upon him. Perhaps these words of James were in his mind as he held on: “But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me” (JSH 1:15-16). He had found the words of James to be true and learned not just to ask but to ask in faith, nothing wavering.

                President Nelson recently highlighted another passage in James about prayer as he thanked members of the Church for their prayers for him. He posted online, “Thank you for your prayers for me during the last two months. My recovery from my fall in September when I injured the muscles in my back has been rigorous. I have needed your prayers. The apostle James taught that the effectual fervent prayers of righteous men and women ‘availeth much.’ Your prayers opened the heavens, and the Lord is blessing me. Your prayers have lifted my spirits and bolstered my courage and my great desire to soldier on. In short, the Lord has responded to your prayers and expressions of love, and He is helping me to heal.” We are grateful indeed for his continued recovery and hope that he many years left with us, even as we remember the life of President M. Russell Ballard today. President Nelson was quoting this succinct passage from James: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). Again, we see in this passage the need for great sincerity and perseverance in our prayers; James did not say that the “casual quick prayer of a righteous man availeth much”—rather, he emphasized the need for fervor similar to the need to not waver. We should put great feeling and time and devotion into our prayers as we seek for the Lord’s help and healing. James also highlighted this with what he then recounted about Elijah: “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit” (James 5:17-18). Elijah didn’t just pray, but he prayed earnestly, even as a prophet of the Lord. Through those prayers he stopped the rain and started it again. James also wrote, “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:13-15). We need the “prayer of faith” to save us; our earnest prayers must be accompanied by great faith as we put our petitions before the Lord.