Powerful Prayer

January 25, 2015 Background Scripture: James 5 Lesson Passage: James 5:13 – 18 James’ epistle is addressed to the Jewish Christians who were part of the dispersion caused by persecution of the first century church by the non-Christian Jews. James, the Lord’s brother, remained in Jerusalem with Peter and John and the other Christian Jews who remained behind and suffered poverty and persecution. James has often been called the apostle of works. I don’t know if that is a fair assessment or proper way to sum up his ministry or epistle. James asserted that if a person truly has faith in God, then it should be demonstrated through action. I believe the debate revolves around the question of what comes first, faith or action. Our actions don’t produce faith in us but James argument is that if there is faith in us then that faith will cause us to act. James’ statement questions whether it is even possible to have true faith and not be led to act as a manifestation of it. James closed out his epistle to the dispersed remnant of Israel by talking about the need and use for prayer in the body of Christ. James offered assurance to the Christians that prayer is an effective tool to be used against affliction and sickness. He even reminded them that prayer would bring forgiveness of sin. Prayer should be offered to God in faith. That is to say, we should have confidence in God keeping His word concerning His care for us. When we pray in faith, we pray having the confidence that our prayer is in agreement with the will of God. If God has said that He desires certain things for us, then when we pray about those things we should believe God even as we talk with Him. If God’s promise is not conditional, then neither should our prayer be seeing that God is the guarantor of the promise and not a dealmaker with us. The Christians were admonished to confess their faults to each other and to pray for the healing of each other. This admonition was not for them to confess their sins to each other since God is the only one who can forgive sin. Their faults might have involved immoral or unethical deeds towards each other. The one condition in the Model Prayer was to forgive others even as we desire God to forgive us when we offend Him. Forgiveness is made easier when we confess our faults to each other. Unfortunately, too often we confess our faults to God and tell others about our sins. That is not what James is writing about in his epistle. After we confess our faults to each other and ask for forgiveness, then we can confess our sins before God and ask for His forgiveness. This will make us right with each other and right with God. Then our prayers will accomplish the things we are seeking. The prophet Elijah is put forth as an example of a man who had similar challenges of the flesh as we do. Yet, when Elijah prayed to God in sincerity, his prayer controlled the natural weather elements for three and a half years. Finally, James encouraged the Christians to support each other’s effort to stay on the right track and know that this will accomplish a lot. Robert C. Hudson December 30, 2014