THE ANSWER IS PRAYER
James 5:13-20
1) Are you in trouble? Pray (vs. 13a). We have the tendency to try to fix our problems without prayer. There have been multiple times where I was faced with a problem and spent too much time trying to fix it with repeated attempts using my superior ingenuity and skill. Once frustration set in the thought occurs, ‘pray’. I do and I receive what I need to fix the problem. James is trying to get us to understand that prayer needs to be our first resort; not our last. When prayer is your last resort you are relying on yourself not God to fix the problem. David was a man who often found himself in some precarious situations. In one of these situations, he was in trouble at the hands of a man named Abimelech. So, he prayed. And God delivered. Psalm 34:4-6. Sometimes God will leave us in our troubled situation until we decide to pray about it. Jonah was inside the big fish three days and God didn’t release him until after he prayed. And the trouble doesn’t have to be a major one. Whether the trouble we’re in is minor or major, we should pray. F.B. Meyer writes, “The greatest tragedy is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.” It’s been said, “When life knocks you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.” Are you in trouble? Pray.
2) Are you happy? Praise God (vs. 13b). James is saying, ‘alright, so you’re not in trouble right now-are you praising Jesus?’ Too often we only think about God when we’re in trouble. James wants us to be thinking about God all the time-not only in our time of need. Did something go well for you? Praise God. Did something work on the first try? Praise God. Did you pass that test, remember that verse, finish on time? Praise God. Like praying when we’re in trouble, praising God when things go well is also a test of our pride. I don’t pray when I’m in trouble because I think I can do it myself. And when I don’t praise God for my accomplishments I am saying, ‘I did it myself’. Deut. 8:10-20. When we don’t praise God in times of plenty we are putting God in a position to have to teach us a hard lesson. It’s not just about us either; it’s about ministering to others. Psalm 105:1-2, “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.” Singing praise and telling others about our joy in the Lord will cause others to be drawn to Christ. Are you happy? Praise!
3) Are you sick? Have the elders pray (vs. 14-15). James moves from being troubled, to being happy, to being sick. “Are you sick? Call the elders together and have them anoint you with oil and pray over you.” Notice James places some responsibility on the sick person. This again is a test of our pride. It can be humbling to ask others to pray for you. In our pride it’s a sign of weakness. James puts us to the test-“Do you want to get well? Then you’re going to have to ask for some help.” We also see in this that James combines prayer with anointing with oil. Oil was used medicinally. In fact, there was once a Greek Doctor named Galen who said that oil was the best of all medicines. Does this mean James thinks that prayer isn’t enough when we’re sick-we need oil too? No. We don’t put our faith in the medicine, we put our faith in the almighty healer-God-“anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord”. This shows that the recognition of power isn’t in the oil as if it held some magical power, but in the God behind the oil-because he does hold the power. It’s a challenge to us as well. Do we have more faith in doctors than we do God? Do we put our hope in medicine or is our hope in God? We can go to the doctor and we can take the medicine and God can use both to help us but the bottom line is in what or in whom do we trust? Vs. 15-“prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well’. 2nd Kings 20:1-7. Hezekiah believed that God could spare his life. And the Lord honored his plea. And interestingly, we see Isaiah preparing a remedy for the boils. So we see God bringing the healing through a medicinal remedy, much like the oil. Hezekiah’s faith wasn’t in the medicine but in God. “The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well’. We can get hung-up on the word, ‘will’ and think that if someone we pray for doesn’t get better we must not have prayed in faith. That’s not necessarily true. Sometimes God allows things to happen regardless of the faithful prayers of loved ones. We need to leave room for God’s will, whatever that might be. James didn’t say, “Are you in trouble? Pray and God will instantly take it away.” If God doesn’t remove the trouble, if God doesn’t remove the sickness there must be a reason and purpose beyond our current understanding. The prayer offered in faith will end with the words of Jesus’ prayer in the garden when he prayed for the cup of wrath to be taken away from him, ‘yet not my will, but yours be done’. 1st John 5:14-15. Robert Law said, “Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done on earth.” Tony Compolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Compolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Compolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it she said, "He died." Compolo felt terrible. But she continued, "Don’t feel bad. When he came into church that Sunday he was filled with anger toward God. He was 58 years old, and he knew he wouldn’t get to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence. But the lady told Compolo, “After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read Scripture. We’ve prayed. Oh, they’ve been wonderful days. I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing.” Then she said something profound. "He wasn’t cured but he was healed."
4) Confession is key (vs. 16). “Therefore”-connected to the previous sentence, ‘If he has sinned, he will be forgiven’. James isn’t saying if you’re sick then it must be because of unconfessed sin. He said in vs. 15, “if he has sinned.” Job’s friends erroneously equated Job’s sickness with sin. Jesus’ disciples were confused about this too. John 9:1-3. In Job’s case as well as the blind man’s sin was not attached to their sickness. However, in some cases, sickness is the result of sin. Psalm 38: 3-8. David attributed his ailments to his sinful folly. James wants us to understand what might be hindering our healing process. “Confess your sins to each other”. We find it very easy to confess other people’s sins to each other, but it’s much rarer to confess our own to each other. This is yet another test of our pride. In all these situations we can see where Satan wants us to rely on ourselves instead of God. “Are you in trouble? Fix it yourself. Are you happy? Pat yourself on the back. Are you sick? You’ll get better. Don’t ask for prayers-that’s a sign of weakness. Are you in sin? It’ll be our little secret. For crying out loud don’t tell anybody-you’ll be judged and ostracized if you do.” These scenarios are all challenges to see if we will trust God. Another issue is confessing our sins to another person is scary. We are allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and transparent. We are risking ridicule and judgment. We are allowing ourselves to be at risk for gossip. That’s why we should be selective in who we confess to. It should be someone who we believe wouldn’t tell others. Four preachers met for a friendly gathering. During the conversation one preacher said, "Our people come to us and pour out their hearts confessing their sins. Let’s do the same. Confession is good for the soul." In due time all agreed. One confessed he liked to play hooky from church and sneak off to go to a movie. The second confessed he smoked cigars and the third one confessed to liking to play poker. When it came to the fourth one, he wouldn’t confess. The others pressed him saying, "Come now, we confessed ours. What is your secret vice?" Finally he answered, "Gossiping." Nonetheless, confession is good for us-it brings healing-physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual healing. Part of the healing can come in the realization that I’m not alone. One of the reasons we don’t confess is because we think that no one else’s sin is as bad as mine and we don’t want to be looked at as this hideous beast who might become unaccepted. But often times what happens is our confession prompts others to confess and then you have a bond formed. People who thought they were the only ones suddenly have a common bond that induces prayer, accountability and encouragement. Instead of isolation and depression you find friendship, joy and blessing. Prov. 28: 13, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” “And pray for each other”. James points out that when someone confesses to us we need to pray for them. We shouldn’t ridicule or condemn when someone confesses-we should pray for them. James shows us how important it is to be a Christian who lifts others up in prayer. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective”. In this we see why we shouldn’t neglect such an important duty as intercessory prayer. Robert E. Lee once said, “Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray--to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight--all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word ’concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and His redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.” Although we know that God is the one who is powerful and effective and that He brings the healing, in this we see that God releases that power through the faithful prayers of his people. In fact, God may actually withhold healing until there are righteous people willing to pray for it. That’s why it is so important for us to be prayer warriors. Confession and prayer are important in the healing process.
5) The example of Elijah (vs. 17-18). James gives an example of that prayer power. Elijah had no power of his own but God allowed the power to be poured out through Elijah’s prayer. “Elijah was a man just like us.” James wants us to understand that Elijah wasn’t some super Christian, he wasn’t divine, he was human-just like us. Therefore, if God allowed such power to flow through Elijah, why couldn’t it happen through us as well? When Hudson Taylor first went to China, he made the voyage on a sailing ship. As it neared the channel between the southern Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra, the missionary heard an urgent knock on his stateroom door. He opened it, and there stood the captain of the ship. “Mr. Taylor,” he said, “We have no wind. We are drifting toward an island where the people are heathen, and I fear they are cannibals.” “What can I do?” asked Taylor. “I understand that you believe in God. I want you to pray for wind.” Taylor responded, “All right, Captain, I will, but you must set the sail.” The captain was agitated and said, “Why, that’s ridiculous! There’s not even the slightest breeze. The sailors will think I’m crazy.” Nevertheless, the captain finally agreed. Forty-five minutes later he returned and found the missionary still on his knees. “You can stop praying now,” said the captain. “We’ve got more wind than we know what to do with!” James Hudson Taylor, “The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty works of Divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God’s standing challenge, “Call to Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” The prayer offered in faith is powerful and effective. Do we have the faith that believes that God can do anything? Elijah needed this kind of faith; James Hudson Taylor needed this kind of faith. We need this kind of faith if God is going to work through us in mighty ways. And it’s all for the glory of God, not the person through whom God uses. The drought and rain that Elijah prayed for was to show wicked king Ahab that God had power over the rain not Baal. 1st Kings 17:1, 18:1, 16-18, [summarize incident on Mount Carmel], 40-46. Notice something about the coming of the rain. It took seven trips before the cloud came. You don’t see Elijah tell his servant after a few times, “forget it; it’s no use trying anymore.” Instead, he said confidently every time, “go back”. We can get discouraged when we pray and it seems like nothing is happening. We need to have the faith that keeps going back to God. And another thing we see is that God didn’t produce this massive dark cloud but a tiny one. Elijah could’ve seen that and thought, “Are you serious? This little thing?” But he knew that God was not limited in any way. As soon as he saw the small cloud he told his servant to tell Ahab he better get going or else the rain that’s coming will wipe you out. God may not answer your prayer the way you think he should. But we should never underestimate God’s ability to provide effective power through something small; that’s what makes him God.
6) Don’t forget the wanderer (vs. 19-20). At first glance it would seem as if these last two verses don’t really belong with the rest of the passage. However, the connection can be made by realizing that the bringing back of a wandering sinner can be accomplished through prayer. 1st John 5:16 says if we see a brother commit a sin that doesn’t lead to death we should pray and God will give him life. If we see a brother in sin, we should pray that God spares his life. This doesn’t mean we should neglect an opportunity to confront sin directly. But perhaps we’ve done that and the person has resisted our attempts to turn him around. The wayward sinner may be able to shut me out but what he can’t do is stop me from praying for him. What can happen then is God intervenes and can get his attention in ways I could not. And thus, he is won over and bought back. And because of that he has been saved from a multitude of sins he would’ve committed had he stayed a wanderer that would have ultimately lead to his death. It’s important that we don’t forget the backslider. It’s important that we don’t write off the one who has wandered far from the church. It’s important that we don’t give up on praying for those whose souls are in jeopardy. There was once an old woman with silver hair--the hot tears flowing down her furrowed cheeks--her worn hands busy over a washboard in a room of poverty--praying--for her son John--John who ran away from home in his teens to become a sailor--John of whom it was now reported that he had become a very wicked man--praying, praying, always praying that her son might be of service to God. The mother believed in two things, the power of prayer and the reformation of her son. God answered the prayer by working a miracle in the heart of her son, John Newton. John Newton, the sailor-preacher, author of Amazing Grace, instrumental in abolishing slavery and the proclamation of the gospel. This resulted because a mother took God at His word and prayed that her son’s heart might become as white as the soapsuds in her washtub.
CONCLUSION: There are many valuable lessons we can apply from the book of James. If we are to live righteous lives we need to submit ourselves to God and seek his wisdom. If our prayer life remains strong we can persevere through our trials, having patience through our suffering. Then we will be able to help those who are troubled and wandering from the faith. If we will remain humble, we will not quarrel and fight; but instead build unity among the brothers and sisters in Christ, confessing our struggles to one another in trust and integrity and loving one another, thus fulfilling the law of Christ and being a witness to others.
