Asking or Telling?

The cowboy slapped down his money on the bar. “Gimme a sarsaparilla“, he said. Says the barkeep in return, “ya askin or tellin?” When you pray are you asking, or telling, or just talking? Scripture calls us to get our prayer-lives in order. According to James 5:16, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much“(KJV)

Concerning the prayers of a righteous man, Oswald Chambers wrote, "God always hears the prayers of His Son and if the Son of God is formed in me the Father will always hear my prayers". Jesus is our righteousness and apart from Him we haven't a prayer.

The prayers that God answers are not those practiced, memorized and unfelt speeches we tend to fall into. Another way to understand fervency in prayer is to agonize in prayer as did Jesus. We will not likely attain to the quality of the prayers of our Savior but we do well to follow his example. I like the way it is stated in the Holman Christian Standard Bible, “The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful“.

How do we know our prayer-life is in order? First John 5:14-15 says answered prayer is evidence of where we are with God. “Now this is the confidence we have before Him: whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for” (HCSB). So, righteousness, fervency in prayer and answered prayer are the keys to effective prayer.
God is not our butler. So, if we want anything from Him we will conform to his will and ask in a manner pleasing to Him.