Prayer that brings miracles

We frequently read in the bible that miracles happened after someone prayed to God or someone asked God for something then it happened. It seems like everything is possible to those who pray.

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.

If Elijah was a man just like us and he prayed and God did miracles for him, wouldn’t it the same for us? So let’s try to understand how Elijah prays.

1. Elijah prayed earnestly

1 kings 17:20-22
Then he cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.

From Genesis all the way to 1 Kings 17, no one had raised the dead the way Elijah did. No one stretches himself on a dead body and prayed for it to come back to life. No one to copy from. Elijah did this out of faith.
What kind emotion state do you think Elijah is in for him to say something like this? Elijah CRIED OUT!
And the Lord heard his voice, and revived the child of the widow. Hallelujah.

2. Elijah prayed expectantly

1 kings 18:42-44 
So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.” Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’”

Elijah kept sending his servant to look towards the sea while he prayed because he expected a miracle from God. Though Elijah and his servant don’t know what will happen, though his servant doesn’t know what to look out for, Elijah and his servant both expected something. And God answered his prayer by sending a cloud from the sea to bring rain.
But it was no big cloud. It is only the size of a man’s hand. If cloud brings rain, a small cloud will bring small rain isn’t it? But Elijah still expects what God will bring what he prayed for and true enough a heavy storm came in a little while.

3. Elijah prayed until he prayed
Elijah prayed like no other has. Going back to 1 kings 17:20-22 we see that he prayed 3 times and the Lord answered him. In 1 kings 18:42-44 he prayed 7 times and God answered him. What if God doesn’t answer him on the 3rd time for the widow’s son or the 7th time for the rain? Then I believe, Elijah will keep on praying. He didn’t give up! The sentence that precedes the story of Elijah in the book of James goes like this:

James 5:16
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

FERVENT PRAYER! Elijah prayed fervently! He prayed until he prayed!