The Lord Will Restore His People

¹⁶ Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. ¹⁷ Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! ¹⁸ Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.

Effective Prayer

⁷ “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Patience and Endurance

⁷ Dear brothers and sisters,^[a] be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.

³⁷ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am ready to hear Israel’s prayers and to increase their numbers like a flock.

²³ Then the Lord will bless you with rain at planting time. There will be wonderful harvests and plenty of pastureland for your livestock.

²³ The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron.

²³ At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name.