This Sunday my home church in Boulder Calvary Bible Church was finishing a series on the book of James. It was good to be back in that place where God is really worshipped, Christ, the gospel and bible are central.
James 5
13 Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
17 Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18 Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
19 My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, 20 remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
Prayer is so central to our lives of faith and our community of faith as guided here in James where the response to many situations is to pray! In my life and I think in some churches especially in the West we have gotten away from this dependence on prayer. We are slow to pray and we often make it seem awkward. At church I often feel reluctant to ask the person next to me for prayer unless I know them well. But that is the opposite of the way it should be, we are connected in Christ and the Spirit and should be quick to pray for each other.
I think this reluctance and culture of not praying may be connected to our extreme desire for independence in modern and American culture. Prayer is in some ways the opposite of independence. For in prayer we recognize we are not in control and ask for help from our God. Now sometimes we are going through trials and situations that humble us to be really willing to pray as long as we are alone or with a few very close friends or family. But the idea of asking a stranger or acquaintance for prayer especially in a group setting or in public is too much for us sometimes. That would expose the fact we don't have our life all together to those we are trying to impress. It would reveal our "weakness". God I pray that the church in the west and America and starting with just me would learn from cultures that are more interdependent and group minded especially as they pray together to our God.
Prayer is also a dangerous and scary activity. For one one extreme of the spectrum we are risking our faith, because we are afraid God won't answer our prayer. On the other extreme prayer is often so effective that we have to face the consequences of our prayers. I remember one time praying for God to grow my patience and one of the ways God answered that prayer was that I was single at the time and God worked it out so that I remained single for over a year. Which I certainly wasn't happy or thankful for at the time, but now I am so thankful for that time of growing in patience and how it helped me be ready for the wonderful relationship I am in now.
One really cool thing about this sermon is that it was given by the chairman of the elder board at Calvary. And he was able to tell us what the elders actually do and one of their main responsibilities is to pray for those who are sick.
That brings up a big question and issue we must tackle. It seems that God does not always answer these prayers for healing of the sick as we ask. God certainly can and does answer these prayers and reveal his power with miracles for some. Yet some who are sick pray and ask many other righteous and faithful people to pray but are not healed. I wish I had an answer for this, but I don't. I struggle with this myself. But I also believe God can heal and does still heal in today's day and age. So I try to pray with faith and ask the Lord to help my unbelief.
In the Sermon a great question was asked: Do we really want more powerful, effective prayer? Do we want a revival in our prayer lives?
We all said yes. But the real test is will we believe and will we act to move in this way. He gave a few quick suggestions to revive our prayer lives:
- Pray on knees to recognize God's sovereignty and our dependence
- Confess sins to each other
- List prayers and keep list to pray about
- Pray earnestly with fervor.
I might add:
- First Praise God and remember who he is and how he has provided in the past before asking.
- Pray in community
- Pray longer than 10 minutes
- Ask the Holy Spirit to speak and guide the prayers
- Ask for faith to believe in places you doubt even as you pray and ask.
Here is a good summary of James 5 as the sermon concluded:
- Pray
- Praise
- Confess
- Rescue sinners
And so God I pray in my life and in the lives of those around me we might seek more and more to be a people of prayer. But I pray we would pray in ways that are healthy and good and not self focused. I pray we would grow in faith. I ask that you remind us who you are and you can and will move in mighty ways as you have in the past. Come Holy Spirit and start a revival of prayer right now in my life and the communities I am in!
Amen
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