“Prayer is a Great Weapon,” so says the
heading for James 5: 13-18 in the Phillips Translation. As I’ve considered the Armor of God, I think
perhaps prayer may be the over-arching weapon of all the others we studied in
our sermon series [resist, rejoice, love] and of those Paul describes in
Ephesians 6:14-17 [the belt of truth, the breastplate
of righteousness, feet
fitted with the gospel of peace, the
shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit]. Paul finishes off the armor list with “Pray
in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. … keep
on praying for all the Lord’s people.”
It would seem that prayer, with the help of the Holy Spirit, activates
God’s armor.
But Paul wasn’t very specific as to what occasions and what kinds of
prayers to pray. “All” of course is all-inclusive, but it leads me to wonder, “How
can I make prayer more practical – in the details of my life that I may see the
power of prayer in my every day, specific, “small” instances of my life?
James gives us many “for instances” of the Prayer Weapon in today’s
verses:
·
When to pray:
o
In
trouble, hurting (vs 13)
o
In
good times, flourishing, happy (vs 13)
o
In
sickness (vs 14)
o
In
confession, when we sin (vs 16)
·
Results:
o
Healed
of sickness (NIV)
o
Restored
by the Lord (Phillips)
o
Forgiven
of sin (Phillips)
o
Live
together whole and healed (Msg)
o
Tremendous
power is made available through a good man’s earnest prayer (Phillips)
We are told to include other
believers in the prayer action when we are sick or when we have sinned. It seems to me that these two circumstances are
when we are most vulnerable, so to let people into our lives at these times
takes forsaking pride and allowing people to know us at our worst. We balk at this notion – we want to somehow
keep up our façade and still enjoy the results James speaks about. It’s the old idea of having our cake and
eating it, too.
But, do we really want
to be healed, forgiven, and victorious over the enemy? If we are serious about walking by faith, we
need all three of these in our lives. And
prayer and inviting others to walk beside us are the keys to living the
victorious Christian Life God calls us to.
Lord, help me to want to walk healed, forgiven, and victorious. Holy Spirit, strip me of my pride that keeps
me from the life you have for me. Amen
