"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 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" (Jas. 5:16,17).

"And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word" (1 Kings. 17:1).

The verse just quoted from 1 Kings gives us Elijah’s first appearance in public. But the Spirit, in James, has graciously furnished us with the account of a yet earlier stage in Elijah’s history, and one full of instruction to us. In 1 Kings, Elijah is introduced in a way which might seem abrupt. He is presented to us as at once boldly entering upon his sphere of labor with the grand and solemn announcement of God’s chastening hand upon Israel. But we are not told in this place anything of the prophet’s previous exercise, of how he came to learn how the Lord would have him to speak. It is the New Testament writer, James, who lets us into the secret of Elijah’s prayer to God, before he ever came out in active service before man..

Now, if the Holy Spirit had not informed us about this important fact by the pen of James, we should have lacked a very powerful incentive to prayer. But Scripture is divinely perfect, lacking nothing that it ought to have, and having nothing that it ought to lack. Hence it is that James tells us of Elijah’s secret moments of prayer and wrestling, when he had, no doubt, mourned over the lamentable state of things in Israel, and also fortified his spirit for the part he was about to act.

This circumstance in the life of the prophet teaches us a very profitable lesson. We live in a time of more than usual barrenness and spiritual dearth. The state of the Church may well remind us of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones. We have not merely to cope with evils which have characterized bygone ages, but also with the matured corruption of a time wherein the varied evils of the present world have become connected with, and covered by, the cloak of Christian profession.

In such a condition of things, what is the resource of the faithful one? Prayer:patient, persevering prayer; secret communion with God; deep and real exercise of soul in His presence. Only in His presence can we arrive at a true estimate of ourselves and things around us, and obtain spiritual power to act for God among our brethren or toward the world without. Elias was a man of like passions with us and he found himself in the midst of dark apostasy and widespread alienation of heart from God. He saw the tide of evil rising around him, and the light of truth fast fading away. The altar of Baal had displaced the altar of Jehovah and the cries of the priests of Baal had drowned the sacred songs of the Levites. In a word, the whole thing was one vast mass of ruin before his view. He felt it; he wept over it; he did more:"He prayed earnestly."

Here was the sure unfailing resource of the grieved prophet. He retreated into the presence of God, he poured out his spirit there, and wept over the ruin and sorrow of his beloved people. He was really concerned about the sad condition of things around him, and therefore prayed about it_prayed as he ought, not coldly, formally, or occasionally, but "earnestly," and perseveringly.

This is a blessed example for us. Never was there a time when fervent prayer was so much needed in the Church of God as at this moment. The devil seems to be exerting all his malignant power to crush the spirits and hinder the activities of the people of God; with some, he makes use of their public engagements; with others, their domestic trials; and with others, personal sorrow and conflict.

But Elijah was not merely called to pass unscathed, as an individual, through the evil. He was called to exert an influence upon others; he .was called to act for God in a degenerate age; he had to make an effort to bring his nation back to the God of their fathers. How much more, therefore, did he need to seek the Lord in private, to gather up spiritual strength in the presence of God, whereby alone he could not only escape himself, but be made an instrument of blessing to others also. Elijah felt all this, and therefore "he prayed earnestly that it might not rain."

Thus it was he brought God into the scene, and God did not fail him. "It rained not." God will never refuse to act when faith addresses Him on the ground of His own glory, and we know it was simply upon this ground that the prophet addressed Him. It could afford Elijah no pleasure to see the land turned into a parched and sterile wilderness, or his brethren wasted by famine and all its attendant horrors. No, it was simply to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, to bring the nation back to its early faith, to eradicate those principles of error which had taken fast hold of the minds of the people. For such ends as these did the prophet pray earnestly that it might not rain, and God hearkened and heard, because the prayer was the offspring of His Spirit in the soul of His dear servant.

(From "Life and Times of Elijah" in Miscellaneous Writings. Vol. 5.)