I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 24th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with James 5:17-18:

"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit."

I love that this scripture stresses that Elijah was an ordinary man, just like you and me. Let's go to Mark 11:24:

"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."

That's Jesus speaking. I want to say to you that God honours the prayer of faith. God doesn't honour prayer; He honours the prayer of faith. There's no good praying a prayer and then doubting whether it will happen - "Well, I'm gonna pray this prayer, and I hope something comes of it." No, by faith, we've got to find out the will of God in that situation, and then we must pray accordingly, with faith, and God will do the rest. "When men work, they work, but when men pray, God works." We need to pray the prayer of faith!

Do you know the story of the old lady who was just about to go to bed? She looked out the window, and there was a big mountain in front of her little house. She prayed, "Lord, I'm praying that when I wake up tomorrow morning, the mountain will be gone." She drew the curtains, got into her bed and went sound asleep. The next morning, she woke up early, opened the curtains, and the mountain still stood there. Her remark was, "Oh ya, I thought so..." No faith in that prayer. I want to tell you I don't know how many times, mainly through desperation, I have prayed: "Jesus, please send the rain!" or "Jesus, please stop the rain!" Floods and droughts, and I've seen the Lord answer my prayers too many times to believe it is just a coincidence. God honours the prayer of faith. 

As we look forward to Christmas day tomorrow, I want to wish you a very peaceful and joyful Christmas Eve, and I want you to start to pray, like I'm going to, more often and, most of all, begin praying the prayer of faith. Jesus bless you, and goodbye.