Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

• James 5:16

“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.

• Matthew 6:9-10

The Boilerplate

My wife started to write her thoughts down at one point in her life.  Some hints point to 2018 and 2019, after she had her open-heart surgery.  In spite of her trials and the atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) that required her to take blood thinners, this was before her major health decline.

Sometimes, she wrote a thought.  Other times, she wrote a Bible verse, and maybe her idea on that day.  Other times, it is a prayer, but I am going to take one entry at a time and try to write about it

Her comment

“The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.”

• My wife’s next comment in this notebook

The Discussion

As I surmised last week, this is probably from the time between having open-heart surgery and the beginning of her decline in health.

She seems to have been in a “name it and claim it” mood.  There is a lot of danger with naming it and claiming it.  What if what you name is not in God’s will?  I could name a Mercedes Benz to be parked on my carport, as the Janis Joplin hit song suggests, but I seriously doubt that will happen.  None of my neighbors have a Porsche.  I do not need to make amends.  And God does not give us something simply because we are jealous of the neighbor.  The Tenth Commandment covers that, if you substitute Mercedes Benz for donkey.  Or would the Benz be more like the ox?

But prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

In being righteous, we are aligning our will with God’s will.  We are letting God make the decisions.  We are accepting God’s will.  In fact, our prayers become more and more in tune with God’s will.

In becoming righteous ourselves, we are proclaiming what Jesus teaches in the Lord’s prayer, His kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.  It might not be like God’s kingdom outside the front door of the house, but for the righteous person, that person has God’s kingdom within them.

And I think that is where my wife was going with this.  As her health started to rapidly decline, she did not moan and groan.  If she got angry and yelled, “God, why?”  I never sensed the emotion, nor did I ever hear her say such prayers.

My wife was accepting God’s will in her life.  We all will die someday.  But only the righteous die “the right way.”  My wife was looking forward to a day without pain, without suffering, and without sin and death.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory