“He cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees” (1 Ki 18:42 KJV).
Elijah’s first prayer is not the kind of request we want to make. He called on God to stop blessing His people until they returned to Him. It took three-and-a-half years until they finally fell to their knees, confessing, “Jehovah, He is the God!” (v 39).
But then “he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (Jas 5:18). The Old Testament record gives scanty description of this, stating only what our lead verse says. James is inspired by the Spirit to tell us what the prophet was doing in this humble position: “He prayed again.” And what happened? The rain came, and the harvests sprang up in blessing.
The sobering question is this: are there times, in days of distraction, decline, and outright defiance of God and His Word, when we need to pray the first kind of prayer? Elijah could not pray “again” for prosperity until he prayed first for adversity. Certainly something to ponder.