Personal Communion With God - 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

Charles Vaughan once said: “If I wished to humble anyone I should question him about his prayers. I know nothing to compare with this topic for its sorrowful self confessions.” That’s really true, isn’t it? Why is that? Why is it that the one area where we get shot down more often than any other area of the Christian life is in the area of prayer? I heard one pastor say that prayer is as natural as breathing for the Christian. But if that’s the case, you have to wonder why so many of us struggle at it. Why does almost every Christian walk around feeling guilty about his prayer life? Why are there times when I try to spend an hour praying, and at the end, I have spent 55 minutes with my mind wandering, and five minutes praying? And if it’s so natural, why does the New Testament have to command us over and over and over to pray? It must not be all that natural if we have to be constantly reminded. Scattered all across the pages of the New Testament are commands like the one before us in James 5, or

Romans 12:12 …be faithful in prayer

Ephesians 6:18 pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying

Philippians 4:6 in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

1 Timothy 2:8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer

1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing … 18 for this is God’s will for you

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.

Colossians 4:2 Devote yourselves to prayer

That word translated devote has to do with strength – strengthen yourself with a hardened, unchangeable resolve.

And not only are we reminded repeatedly, but many times we are exhorted not to give up.

Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Then He went on to tell the parable of the persistent widow. In Luke 11 Jesus told a parable about prayer being like a guy banging on his neighbor’s door asking for some bread, and the guy inside the house doesn’t want to get up because he’s already in bed, but he finally agrees to get up and help the neighbor because he keeps persisting. In these parables Jesus is saying, “When it comes to prayer - don’t quit. Keep at it!” Why do we need all this instruction about persistence in prayer and not giving up? It’s because the normal thing that will happen to a Christian in prayer is that we will get all fired up about prayer, and really be diligent about it for a while, and then it will kind of fade away.

So the indication from Scripture is that prayer is something we are naturally inclined to neglect, and when we do finally do it, we are naturally inclined to give up too soon. If God commands an activity, and He keeps saying, “I don’t want you to neglect this activity, and when you do it, don’t give up!” – what does that tell you about the activity? It tells me that it is going to be hard. Prayer is not like breathing. Passionate, persistent, powerful prayer will not come naturally. What will come naturally is inconsistency, giving up, and prayerlessness.

That is why we need so much help from the Holy Spirit in prayer. In Romans 8 the Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know what to pray for. In Philippians 3 the Holy Spirit enables us to worship. In Ephesians 2 the Holy Spirit gives us access to the Father. And twice (Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 1:20) we are commanded to pray in the Spirit.

That tells me two things. First, if I need that much supernatural help, again – that shows me what a difficult thing this is humanly speaking. But beyond that, it also shows me how important it is to God. If the Holy Spirit is that involved, it must be especially important. God must really want us to pray – which is exactly what 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says – this is God’s will for you. If you ever cry out in prayer and say, “God, show me Your will,” He could answer back and say, “You’re doing it. My will is for you to pray.” Why is that? Why is it so important to God that we pray? He already knows everything that’s in our heart. He already knows everything He is going to do, and the perfect plan that He established before the foundation of the earth - the events of each day that He has written in His book before any of us were born – none of that is going to change. So why does He keep commending us to be devoted to prayer?