Pray!

James 5:13-18

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

What is Prayer?

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to His Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God. John Bunyan

Isn’t it remarkable that God, the Almighty God, the King of kings, the Eternal Creator of all things, the infinitely holy God, the sovereign God has provided access for us into His throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in times to help in time of need?

In this passage, pastor James tells some incredible things about prayer. In every verse of this passage, there is something about prayer! And he says very clearly that in any and every situation, prayer is always useful. The Lord commands prayer. Therefore the Lord hears and answers prayers. Consider the situations that James brings up:

1.      Suffering

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

James is speaking here of a Christian who has problems, he is under trial. This trial may take any dimension, trials of various kinds (1:2)…blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial (1:12). Suffering here may be because of sickness, opposition, bereavement, domestic problems, poverty, distress, danger, famine among other troubles come upon us.

In case you may have imbibed too much Charismatic teaching, remember,

ü  Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5:7)

ü  Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. (Job_14:1)

Thank God that we have a place of sweet relief at the throne of grace. Thank God that He hears… that He will answer us. All these difficulties and challenges find their place before the Great I AM, the Lord Almighty, who has called us to pray.

But how can one remain steadfast under trial? By praying. Personal prayer cannot be undervalued. This is why the Lord taught us to pray in Matthew 6:5-15. We constantly urged to pray.

-      Devote yourselves to prayer (Col. 4:2)

-      Pray without ceasing (1Thess. 5:17)

2.      Cheerfulness

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

The word translated cheerful means, ‘to be in good heart.’ It does not mean without any kind of trouble. Here is the second experience of life of being in a state of happiness, or joy and gladness. Our Christianity covers not only life in times of sorrow, but also life in times of joy and gladness. How are we to respond to times of happiness? We are told to go to the Lord with praise. That is with thanksgiving and gladness. There is no time when we are not welcome in God’s presence.

Psalm 100 is a psalm of thanksgiving:

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!

Serve the LORD with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

3.      Sickness

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The first two circumstances of life are private. But there are troubles of life that you cannot handle alone and you should not try to handle alone. That is why the Lord, having saved you, has placed you in a local church. In the local church, the Lord has given spiritual leaders, the elders. Make use of them especially when you are sick.

Here we have a glimpse of the private ministry of the elders in caring for the sick members. James expressly associates the healing ministry of prayer and anointing with the local church leaders. There is nothing to say that they have any healing powers as a spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12:30). Therefore, this ministry to the sick does not belong to any specially gifted person. This caring ministry has also not gone with the apostles. It is the work of the shepherd to heal the sick as Ezekiel said in 34:4 and here we are told how. But this has nothing to do laying on of hands or with the heretical sacrament of the Roman Catholic of Extreme Unction (the last of the seven Roman sacraments).

So the sick person calls for his elders from the church. It does look like a severe sickness, going by the phrase, the one who is sick (v.15) and that the elders are to pray over him. It is not the sick who go to the elders. It is also a plurality of elders not just one man. It is the elders who pray for the sick person. The sick person is not required or even expected to exercise faith to be healed, more than the summoning of the pastors to pray for him. The faith mentioned here is the faith of the elders!  Clearly, this is not a public healing service.

The ministry is two-fold:

1)      Pray over him

2)      Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord

In NT times, oil was used as medicine like the Good Samaritan used it in Luke 10:34 to sooth the wounds of the person who had been injured by robbers. (C.f. Mark 6:13).

What James is saying here is that, prayer is a means as well as medicine. Both spiritual and physical means are divinely appointed for our welfare. We pray, give us this day our daily bread and we still go to the shop to buy food. In the same way the elders used anointing oil in the name of the Lord. The healing comes from the Great Physician who heals the sick. Peter healed the lame man in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:6, 16).

Three promises are closely connected to this two-fold ministry of prayer and anointing:

1)      The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick

2)      The Lord will raise him up

3)      If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven

It is expected that in sickness one will consider his ways and come to repentance, even if the sickness has nothing to do with one’s sins. The Bible does not teach that sickness is a direct consequence of some foregoing sin, but that sickness could be a consequence of punishment to warning.

4.      Sinfulness

Christians still sin. Until we die and enter into eternal glory, we battle with the remaining sin. How do we go about the business of killing sin in our mortal bodies?

When we sin against one another, James tells us to confess such sins and to pray for one another (v. 16). Confession goes as far as the sin as gone. Secret sins are to be repented to God privately. If a brother sins against another he should go to him privately and hope to settle the matter between them (Matt. 18:15). And if one has sinned publicly, he should confess it to God and in public.

At the same time, if a person who has sinned against you confesses their sins you must always be willing to forgive. This is the way “you may be healed’ or reconciled.

The power of prayer

James says, The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (v.16)

Do we doubt the power of prayer? Is this why we do not pray? James encourages us to consider the example of the prophet Elijah and his prayer. First of all, James emphasis that Elijah was like us in every way – he was a man with nature like ours! There was nothing extraordinary about Elijah except His God, and who is our God and Father.

Elijah prayed fervently, that it might not rain and there was no rain for three and half years. Then Elijah prayed again, and there was rain enough to make crops produce sufficient crop. The key thing is that Elijah prayed and again! Are we praying?

And James’s point is as plain as noonday. Whatever life brings our way – whether suffering or joy, ours is to pray and praise. And even when we are too weak to pray, we should invite others to come and pray with us. Whether we are sick or sinful, the solution is in confidently approaching the throne of grace. After all, by the efficacy of the work of Christ, we are assured of mercy and grace in times of need. Therefore, let’s make sure we do not forget to pray. And let’s make sure that our praying is not merely mouthing words, saying prayers, but a fervently seeking after the heart of God. Only then do we truly pray, and only then do we experience our own great things. As John Bunyan told us here,

Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to His Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.

Applications

1.      Pray at all times. Whatever you do or do not do, make sure that you are constant and fervent in prayer. You are to pray and praise in different life circumstances without fail for the Bible says, “…Let him pray… Let him sing praise.” The Elders of the church are told, “…let them pray. And the church is expected to pray, for we read, “…pray for one another.” Finally, we read of the prayer of Elijah, “… he prayed.”

2.   Be open with your needs, especially with your pastors. The Bible says here, Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. That is, be open about your physical needs to the pastors. And later on, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.

3.      Do not hide your sins but confess them. Confess your sins to one another. He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but he who confess and forsakes will obtain mercy (Pro. 28:13). We should be constantly confessing and constantly forgiving.

4.      We should learn how to pray from the Scriptures. James takes us to the Biblical example of Elijah. Indeed we can learn how to pray from others.  How do you learn to pray?

-      By praying

-      By meditating on Scripture

-      By praying with others

-      By reading about prayer

-      By praying other people’s prayers