Week 8...”Faith and Your Prayer Life”, James 5.13-20

“Is any among you afflicted? let him pray”!
Been afflicted lately? How about conflicted? Maybe restricted, or wrongly depicted. I hope you haven't been evicted, but if you're like myself, you may have felt convicted. But the fact of the matter is, one of those terms could very well describe your life's situation at any given time.
So how do we get through the things we're going through? Well James advises...”let him pray”. Now just maybe some of you already have a rich prayer life. I'm a great believer in the power of prayer...in private, in public, on the phone, at church, away from the church, in people's homes... wherever and whenever. You see, it makes me feel better, and I believe it makes others feel better when we pray with or for them. But prayer is not about feeling, is it? It's about communicating. With God...and He with you. So James says...“Is any among you afflicted? let him pray”.
Now, man has been talking with God since we have existed. And God has been talking with us. It may be interesting to note however, that the first recorded words of God to man were in the form of a command, and a dire warning...
Ge. 2.15-17..."And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat...But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Well from that time on, man has had a very shaky relationship with the Creator, to say the least. In fact, it's mostly downhill, from his eviction from the Garden, to the first recorded murder, committed by Cain, to the Great Flood. And then, the slow, seemingly eternal climb from God's covenant with Abraham, to the cross on Calvary's hill, where the very last covenant sealed the relationship between God and man...at least for those who believe and receive! It was there that the most costly and most pained, but most welcome prayer of all time was uttered...”Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”! And then, the very last prayer recorded in scripture...”Even so, come, Lord Jesus”! But from cover to cover, the prayers that are found there are both soulful and joyful, and everything in between.
For example, let's take a look at Ge. 18.22-23, where Abraham asks...”...Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” And in response, we witness an offer of mercy, from our Great God. Then in Exodus 3.11, Moses asks...”Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh?” And God replies...”I Am that I Am”! In Joshua 7.7, he prayed...”Alas, O Lord God, why have You brought us over the Jordan to...destroy us? We would rather You allowed us to stay on the other side, in peace!” And the Lord's response...
Joshua 24.12-13..."And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat."
In the Psalms we have a record of King David's rich prayer life. And believe me, the king needed prayer (“Is any among you afflicted?...). In fact, the Psalms contain a wealth of prayer...they are chock full of praise and adoration and instruction, and of course, confession. And when you consider it, those really are the main ingredients of prayer, aren't they. Only God is worthy of our praise, and He needs to hear it often! And only God can hear our confession, and He needs to hear it often! But He also deserves our thanks, and often. And finally, He loves to hear our petitions...that is, we make our requests and He makes His bequests. What a Great God we have!
So this is where we find James in the last couple of paragraphs in chapter 5, giving his treatise on “the prayer of faith”. First of all, as we have already observed, James expresses concern for our affliction, and in each of vss. 13-16 he speaks to one of the greatest of our self-concerns...our health. Who of us has not had at least one scare with cancer, heart disease or...? And the “big one”, like a San Andreas earthquake, is roiling away inside us even as we speak. “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray.”
Even consider calling in the big guns...the elders of the church, as he advises in vs. 14. If your prayer alone is good, corporate prayer is better, and combining it with an anointing makes it better yet. But even at that, the proviso is clear, in vs. 15...pray in faith, believing! And from what we read in vs. 16, adding a little confession at the same time, will go a long ways as well. In fact, James goes on to say there, that...”The consistent, fervent prayers of the righteous will take us into realms where we never expected to go”!
And the example that he gives, of Elijah, that great man of faith, is proof positive of the impact of the prayer offered in faith, by a faithful believer.
But before we finish this study, we mustn't neglect that couple of phrases that we overlooked back in vs. 13...”Is any merry, let him sing Psalms”. This seems to be James' one and only concession to the possibility that there may be any small hint of joy to be encountered in the life of a Christian! However, when and if you may experience a twinge of it, raise up your voice in a song of praise to the Lord, with the expectation that He'll respond with another dose! Going back to David, I've already referred to his Psalms of praise, instruction and confession, but he also recorded many hymns of joy.
For example, consider 16.8-11, 66.1-4, and 95.1-3...
So sing for joy in the midst of your affliction!
And finally, keep yourself, but keep others also. I'm sure you're saddened along with our Lord, by the defection of so many from “...the household of God” (Eph. 2.19). Much good seed has fallen along the wayside and we have an obligation and a responsibility to...”convert them from the error of their way”, vs. 20. You know, recovery is so difficult...in some cases, impossible. How much sweeter to be a consistent source of learning and leading and loving to our brothers and sisters in the faith, before the grass of fellowship fades, and the flower of faith falls away!
Remember...“If you fulfil the royal law according to the scriptures...loving your neighbour as yourself...you do well” (Ja. 2.8).
So be it. Peace, love and joy be on your days!