“The Prayer of Faith”
James 5:13-20
This morning I want to talk with you about the word trouble and what you can do about it. Trouble seems to lurk everywhere we turn. There is a board game called Trouble and if in moving your game piece around the board and you land on another player then you are in trouble and you have to start over. Travis Tritt wrote a country song called T-R-O-U-B-L-E. He is out one night and in walks a woman who looks like trouble. I have heard people say that trouble is their middle name. Most of us can remember when our parents said those words to us…you’re in trouble young man or young lady. If my parents ever called me by my first and middle name I knew there was trouble on the horizon.
One little boy prayed, Lord take care of my daddy and my mommy and my sister and my brother and my doggy and me. And Oh, please take care of yourself, God. Cause if anything happens to you we’re all gonna be in a big mess.
James begins this passage by asking us a very simple question, are there any of you who are in trouble? And he then tells us, if you are then pray. And if you pray in faith, He then tells us what the result will be.
I see 3 different kinds of prayer in this passage.
1. We are to pray for ourselves. V. 13.
2. We are to call for the leaders/elders of the church to pray. vvs. 14-15
3. We are to pray for each other. V. 16
Now this passage not only tells us who should pray it also tells us when to pray. So I want to give you 4 times we are to pray and then if you are taking notes you can do so as we walk through each one.
1. We must pray when we are suffering. V. 13. He asks a question. “Is any one of you in trouble? If so he should pray.” Now what James is asking here is not just are you in trouble…..but are you in great trouble and are you suffering as a result?
1st Peter 4:12 says “dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange is happening to you.” You and I know that life is never easy and James is reminding us that instead of allowing life to make us resentful, bitter or discouraged that we should accept these things as a part of life and pray and God will get us through them. When we sense that the pressures of life are more than you can handle, James says pray.
2. We should pray/offer praise when we have success. Look at the 2nd part of v. 13. “Is anyone happy?” Let him sing songs of praise. James is reminding us that all of us, at one time or another have something to give praise for.
Now listen, I know that when we are singing praise songs on Sunday mornings, I know something that you may not think I know. I know that some of you don’t sing. For some reason you either:
• Don’t think you know how
• You think everyone else is a better singer
• You are daydreaming
• Or you just don’t know the song
• Or maybe you only like country music
But here’s the thing. None of those are acceptable reasons in God’s eyes. And you are missing what worship is truly all about.
When we are happy we aren’t thinking about our troubles. It doesn’t mean we don’t have any troubles. It just means that we have some things to be thankful for. One of the reasons James tells us to sing when we have success is that he knew that when God’s people are having success it is our tendency to become spiritually lazy. Then it takes a trial to come along for God to once again get our attention. He tells us that in the good times when we are experiencing success that we should praise our heavenly Father.
3. We should pray when we have sickness. Vv. 14-15. Now this is a bit difficult for us to understand. Let me tell you up front what he is not asking.
• He is not asking if God answers prayer. We know that He does.
• He is not asking whether God answers prayer for the sick? We also know that He does.
• He is not asking whether God still performs miracles. We know that He does. All of these things are true.
The focus here is not on what God is able to do. We know that God is able to anything. The scripture tells us that He can do more than we can ask and even more than we can imagine. (Eph. 3:20) The focus here is on what the church can do. That’s us. The Bible tells us here what a Bible believing church should do when someone is sick. We should pray that God will raise them up.
So James then gives us 4 steps… 4 steps in this process of praying for the sick.
Step #1. The sick person calls for the elders/leaders. In The NT this word for sick is very broad. It can mean any kind of sickness…. physical… mental…emotional.. spiritual… or even relational. Any sickness that has become just too much for them to bear. Have you been there? The leaders of the church are called for two reasons (1) they represent the church and (2) they know how to pray. If they don’t know how to pray they have no business leading. How can someone lead God’s church if they don’t talk regularly with the owner?
Step#2. The elders/leaders go to the sick person. Plural. They go together because there is strength in numbers and there is comfort in numbers. By going in person we also communicate to the sick person that we are sincere. We could send a card, we could make a phone call, a personal visit to pray says we mean it and it says we have not forgotten about those who are sick.
Step #3. The leaders pray and anoint with oil. When the leaders show up James tells them to anoint the sick person with oil. The word literally means to rub the oil on them. It doesn’t tell us what kind of oil but it’s not Pennzoil…it’s not Mobil… most likely it was olive oil.
Olive oil was used for 3 purposes. (1) if an animal was wounded they were anointed with oil to sooth the pain and to help cure the wound. Psalm 23:5. David said you anoint my head with oil. (2) People did for cosmetic reasons. Psalm 104:15 says God gives us oil to make a man or woman’s face shine. (3) Men were anointed if they were being placed in office. Priests and prophets were referred to as anointed ones. Oil was of course a symbol of the Holy Spirit. James says we are to use it when we pray for someone and that when we do we must always pray in the name of Jesus. This is a reminder to us that it is not the elder; it is not the oil; it is not the church that heals. It’s Jesus.
Step #4. There is healing. V. 15 is a powerful verse. Listen, “and the prayer offered in faith WILL make the sick person well.” James refers to this as the “prayer offered in faith” and it is the only time this phrase is used in the New Testament. Now the text does not say anything about how the healing will take place. It doesn’t rule our medical care. As I mentioned earlier the oil had a medicinal quality to it. And so it suggests that God’s way of healing is that prayer AND medicine. Whether quickly or slowly, whether by miracle or by medicine or by some combination of the two, God is able to heal His children.
So James has said that (1) we are to pray when we suffer (2) we are to praise Him when we have success (3) we are to call in the elders when we have sickness. Then he gives us one more.
4. When we have sin. Look at vv.15-16. “If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Now we cannot look at this passage without seeing right away the connection between the physical and the spiritual. And we cannot help but notice that it is entirely possible that someone’s physical illness could be caused by the sin their life.
The psalmist David committed several severe sins… he caused a man to be murdered; he committed adultery. Following that he began to feel the effect on his physical body. Listen to how he describes it…”When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of the summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover it up. I said, “I will confess my sin to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
Can guilt and sin do that to us? Absolutely. It happened to David and it happens to us. And when it happens it can cause us to feel like we are wasting away. Now not all sickness is caused by a particular sin but some are. And James is telling is that until that person confesses that sin it is absolutely useless to pray for them. So we must ask, is there any sin in your life that is standing between you and God? Then they might confess or they might not.
Perhaps the biggest problem we have with this passage is found in v. 15. James states without qualification that the sick person WILL BE HEALED. Period. We would prefer to read it the prayer of faith MIGHT save the sick. We all know that not everyone we pray for and not everyone we anoint will be healed. So we come away from this passage with a at least one question. What does James mean when he says that if we pray with faith the individual we are praying for WILL BE HEALED?
When we study the Bible it is always important that we look at the whole of scripture, not just one passage. Many times other passages, on the same topic, help us understand a difficult passage. Jesus said repeatedly that if we pray according to God’s will, our prayers will be answered. James was saying that when we pray in God’s will in faith, our prayers WILL BE ANSWERED. It is sometimes hard to know whether something is God’s will or not. And so we pray for things and we don’t get an answer or we don’t get the answer we want. What do we do? We continue to pray and we continue to pray with faith. Because that’s what He says to do.
To me this passage reminds us of several things. (1) Never hesitate to pray. We should never think well I don’t know God‘s will in this so I’m not sure whether I should pray or not. We should never think I don’t know if MY prayers will help. Maybe someone else should pray. I don’t know if I’m spiritual enough. Never hesitate. (2) Pray with intensity. Fervor means to have an intensity of feeling. When Jesus prayed in the garden the evening before He was crucified He prayed so intensely that He sweat drops of blood. (3) Pray submissively. Realize that God’s understanding of the situation is much greater better than ours. Just because we believe that physical healing is best for someone doesn’t mean that God agrees with us. Many times He sees a much bigger picture than we do.
He closes with these words about the prophet Elijah. Vv. 17-20.
We have seen this in our congregation before. One man I met who was a retired teacher had just started retirement when he suddenly developed some severe health concerns and he was diagnosed with cancer. A fast growing type and he and his family were more than concerned. Someone asked me if I would go over and talk to him. So I did and he and his wife came to church and we gathered over him and prayed for him and he was healed. The doctors were stunned. The family was amazed. We were all thankful. This man had a limited amount of time left here on earth and God did a miraculous thing. Why? Because His people prayed. And we must never stop.
