Pray and Praise: James 5:13-20
As I get older I notice that life, is really full of swings and roundabouts, those times that people describe as ups and downs or seasons. You could be having a great day one of those ones when people are generally cherry and greet one another with a smile and enjoy the warmth, the washing has dried within hours in a gentle breeze, a sky lark lets loose a tune in the heights invisible against the heat haze, you’re singing songs like ‘summertime and the living is easy’ in your head, enjoying the light, eating light meals and wearing light clothes and appreciating the outdoors. But the next day might bring with its cyclonic winds, that sky lark has been blown out to sea, rain by the bucket full, those towels have plied themselves up in a soggy mess from the clothes line to the neighbours vege garden, you need to seek out shelter, no time to stop and chat let alone smile for it’s miserable, you could be feeling down and really it’s just enough to keep focused on what you have to get done.
In James letter we've heard this bit of advice from him and he makes it fairly clear that through those great days and through the days that the world throws all of its rubbish at us we should stay in touch with God. We are to pray in some form or other.
For the next couple of weeks we will be focusing on prayer, given that this is the second week of lent, I know that while many are giving something up as Easter approaches. I wonder is setting time aside to talk with God to sing praises to God something that we could take-up. I know myself that it is something that is very easy to neglect.
An interesting thing about the early church was that they had some dominant characteristics. Those who have studied the early church say that they were a praying church and a singing church. The apostle Paul writes about praying and singing in his first letter to the Corinthians, when he is writing about things that build up the church and spiritual gifts, 14:15, “So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.”
James this brother of Jesus, yip his Mum was Mary also, gives instruction on prayer and I think that it is reasonably straight forward stuff and that it tells us a bit about how we should respond in some of the different circumstances of life.
‘Are you in trouble, are there dramas in your life, has it gone to pack? Then pray!
Are you happy, is it all going well, sing songs of praise to God about it, let rip with a few Hallelujahs!’ (Moffatt paraphrase).
So singing was a mainstay of meetings back in the day, as it is in our meetings. I find it interesting that James in his letter comes out with this line, “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.”
It say’s something for those, like me, who grumble about things. If you are in trouble, you should pray. So what is prayer? Well, this might seem like a simple thing but within seven verses James uses five different Greek words that translate into the English words ‘pray’ or ‘prayer’ and a word for praise that in Greek means in English ‘sing songs of praise’, which if you think about a song of praise it is either individual or corporate prayer that follows a set format a written song, usually. However there are some churches where people will sing a song of praise in their meetings straight from the heart and out of their lips to God.
As you know prayer is talking and it can be singing to God. So let’s wanderer through verse 13 and look at what James is getting at.
1) If you are in trouble, if you are in deep dire strife. James tells his readers to pray. This is step one of prayer you are in trouble, pray! The word James uses translates to pray, make prayers and pray earnestly. Earnestly is one of those words that we don’t use much now days. It means seriously or intensely.
I think what James is saying here is that if you are in trouble; have a serious discussion with God about it. I know that it’s easy to go somewhere and pray but: for some reason we don’t always achieve this task, we set out on. There are times when I’m in strife so the comfort eating kicks in, those of us who went through the Christchurch quakes, know what quake weight is, it was due to comfort eating in stressful times, prayer is much better for the waste line. Things aren't going well so we pray, or do we buy ourselves something nice to make ourselves feel better, leap up and down, mope, sulk, worry, get angry, spak out, get even, discuss it all over the neighbourhood, start an argument about it, involve the media, or perhaps just stew on it for a month or two? James says we should pray about it and not just pray, but seriously pray about it. That’s it, when you are in trouble talk it over with God.
Paul wrote this about prayer from prison, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus”. Remember that Paul was a man who suffered many physical assaults on behalf of the gospel.
Jesus said this to his disciples about asking God for support also; “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.” Are you a disciple of Jesus’ if so if you are in trouble talk it over, seriously talk it over with God, do it in Jesus name. A question that I would ask is, “is the response to your prayer going to bring Glory to the Father?”
I would suggest that if you do pray, listen for Gods still small voice also. In first Kings we have this depiction of God talking to Elijah in “a gentle whisper.” (1 Kings 19:9-18). This is a way in which God will be with us in our prayers, and speaking to us.
Check this out, this is a bloke praying because he was troubled;
“Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my enemies,
I am the utter contempt of my neighbours
and an object of dread to my closest friends—
I am forgotten by them as though I was dead.
those who see me on the street flee from me.” (Psalm 31:9-12)
What a miserable place that bloke was in, this was a prayer of King David, it sounds like he was having a really rough day, or month or six.
Within the book of Psalms there are some that are laments, like the one I’ve just read, those prayers that are declaring how rough things are, but something happens when we pour out our hearts to God. There is a form of release that occurs in our spirits and emotions when we tell God of our troubles, when our spirit connects with his Holy Spirit in prayer. It is well worth telling God just how rough things are, and it’s great if we can declare that things are going really well.
2) So what if it’s all going great? This is step two of praying, James tells us to praise God, let God know things are going well and if you are one of those bold types you can get away with singing praises in public whereas praying in public will just get you strange looks. Try it some time. Prayer is an interesting thing, a connection with the divine, with God himself. Many say that praise is the highest form of prayer. When we join in singing songs of praise, this too is prayer. It is heard by God in heaven and we join the heavenly creatures in praising God. It is good to give thanks!
Psalm 92:1-5 says this about praising God:
“It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts!”
I get to that line about how great are “your deeds O LORD, I sing for joy at the work of your hands”, The Hebrew people had had amazing times as they responded in faith to God, he had led their ancestors, released them from captivity in Egypt, lead them by fire and by cloud, God had given them the law, had taken them to the promised land. As long as they were faithful to God great things occurred for them. On a personal level and you might be able to say this also, God has set me free from my sins, through the life and sacrifice of Jesus. I know how great his deeds are. Then to look at the work of His hands; there is nothing that compares and I know the work of my hands in comparison is a pretty feeble comparison.
If you’ve read through the Psalms you will notice that there are many that are songs of praise. Something positive happens in our spirits and in our emotions when we praise God.
When Jesus taught us how to pray he started with this line. This then is how you should pray:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-10)
The thing that Jesus is pointing at, is the Holiness of God, remember that the Hebrew people would not even use the name of God, they still do not speak the name of God for his name is to Holy for them to mention. YHVH the name of God was and is for the Hebrew people unutterable name, a hallowed name. For the name of God that should be praised, it is good for us to approach God in prayer conversationally but also respectfully, humbly!
When we pray it is good for us to recognise the Holiness of God by giving him thanks, to pray that his kingdom will be here on earth as it is in heaven, for this is His desire. God desires that His will be done on Earth in the city of Dunedin even now in 2014.
When we sing songs of praise do we mean it? We sing songs of praise and thanks giving to God, are we honest in what we are singing? If not, if we’re in caught up in our own troubles maybe it is back to James step one, I’m in trouble so I’ll pray. As a congregation if there is trouble around us it might be better that we put songs of praise aside and pray. If there is need or times of concern we are instructed to pray, if it is going well we should be giving thanks to God in praise.
I have a friend who when I greet them and ask him how they are he tells me that he’s “Full of the joy of the Lord.” I would call that praise that would get many thinking as they over hear that comment.
I want to skip over a few verses as I've only addressed one so far, and it is to read these two verses from James; “Elijah was a man just like us, He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”
I think where James is heading here is that God responds to our prayers, that even the greats of the Bible were just men and women like us. These greats of the Bible were not that much different to us here in Dunedin today and through their prayers and their praises they were heard by God and God changed their circumstances and their attitudes, their lives were lived in his will. You might note that I've skipped over a few verses on healing, and I've missed some on wandering from the truth but they are for another time. However whatever your week ahead might look like in the down times pray to God and in the good times praise God. Stay connected to God through your troubles, through the good times for God appreciates and cares you as a person and wants to be close to you at all times..
