"Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."  

James 5:16

The prayer of the child of God living right before their Father is incredibly powerful! It is not powerful because they have earned God's favor. It is powerful because they are in touch with their Heavenly Father. Sin does nothing but push us farther and farther away from the Lord. Righteous living on the other hand, draws us closer and closer to the Lord. The man or woman living right before God is standing with God, they are in tuned with God and His will. Therefore, they are able to pray according to God's will, and when we pray according to God's will, great things happen! We read in 1 John, "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." Stay in the shadow of your Father, communing with Him daily, that you may know His will. If you know His will and ask according to it your prayers will be effective and powerful!

"The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous." Proverbs 15:29