Communion With God (Part 2) - James 5:13 Series

James 5:13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.

Introduction

Your religion is what you do with your solitude. When you are all alone and you don’t have to think about any particular thing, what do you think about? What are you like in private?

Robert Murray M’Cheyne wrote this: “What a man is alone on his knees before God, that he is, and no more.” That is the measure of your stature as a person – what you are alone on your knees before God. I can put on nice clothes and come to church and put my best foot forward, hide my sins, and put on a pretty good show, so a lot of people are impressed with me, but whatever I am tomorrow morning when it’s just me and God, that is what I am and no more.

We have been studying through the book of James, and we came last week to verse 13 of chapter 5 where James calls us to personal, private prayer. The rest of this passage is about praying for one another, but he begins with praying for yourself. It has to start with personal, private prayer, because until you are right with God it is not going to do any good to pray for other people. And so I feel burdened to spend one more week on this verse before we move on.

Fix the Church by Fixing the Members

I told you last time that this closing section of James (from v.12 to the end) is James’ remedy for all the problems in the church that he has been exposing throughout the book. And it is mostly focused on prayer - private prayer in verse 13 and then the elders, then everybody praying for one another. That is the solution.

What a novel approach to fixing a broken church. Fix the church by fixing each one of the members. Revolutionary idea. Usually when something is wrong with the church people have all kinds of ideas about how to fix it – add a new program, more of this – less of that in the preaching, change the constitution, right some new bylaws, get new leadership, try different music - and we forget the most fundamental truth about what the church is. We are a body, and a body is healthy when the body parts are healthy. And that happens only when each body part is responsive to the signals coming from the head. And so in fixing the church James points us first to private prayer.

Pray in Every Circumstance or Feeling

Internal Events and External Events

And the emphasis is prayer in every circumstance in life.

James 5:13 Is any one of you suffering hardship? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.

Hard times and happy times – take it to the Lord in prayer. And that merism covers not only the whole range of circumstances in life, but also the whole range of feelings in your heart. Is any one of you suffering hardship? – That is about circumstances. Is anyone happy? – That is about how you feel on the inside, which may have nothing to do with circumstances. In fact, you could experience both of these at the same time – trouble on the outside and happiness on the inside. The only other place this word translated happy (or cheerful) is used is in Acts 27. Paul was on a ship that was being smashed against the rocks in a storm, and it was about to sink. The sailors were all freaking out, and Paul said this:

Acts 27:22 But now I urge you to take courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.

That word take courage is this same word happy or cheerful. So that is a situation where they were definitely experiencing hardship on the outside, and yet they are called to be happy on the inside. Not happy in the sense of being giddy or jovial. Obviously if you are on a ship at sea that is sinking in a storm you are going to take that seriously. But even in the midst of their alarm they could be confident, calm, and glad because of the outcome God promised.

Another example of both at the same time is Paul and Silas in prison. Tremendous suffering, and yet they felt joyful and happy, and so it was a time for singing. So this range James gives us is three-dimensional. Externally it extends all the way from the hardest times to the best of times and internally it extends from the depths of despair to the heights of joy. Every imaginable circumstance in life, outside or inside, calls for prayer. - When things bounce your way, or when the ball bounces right on you and smashes you like a bug; When things work out exactly as you planned, and when nothing works out; When you feel happy, or sad; When you have peace or anxiety; Courage or fear; Humility or anger; Hope or depression; Love or loneliness; Contentment or longing; Delight or dread; Feeling loved or feeling hated; Clarity or confusion. Strength or weakness; Success or failure; Satisfaction or emptiness; Excitement or boredom; Rest or fatigue; Patience or exasperation; So often we pray when we have the negative ones, but not the positive ones. But all emotions – negative or positive ? are extremely valuable because they are what give passion to your prayers if you direct them toward God.