Powerful Prayer

James 5:16

Therefore confess your sins to each other… that’s a tough thing to do.  It means being honest and vulnerable.  In today’s media-driven society, we like to show the best of the best, not the worst.  Life is messy, but no one wants to admit it.  It takes courage to own up to the bad choices we’ve made, and it takes being in a trusted relationship to feel comfortable enough to share our faults and weaknesses.  Confession doesn’t just happen, it requires faith.

And pray for each other so that you may be healed… and by healed James wasn’t referring to just repairing a bodily injury, but rather, being forgiven of sins.  Forgiveness heals us inside and out and allows us to live in communion with others in the way God intended.  Acknowledging sin's existence and praying for God’s healing power brings us back into relationship with Him.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective… some people are really good at praying, which is a testimony to the relationship they have with God.  People with an obvious connection to Christ are the ones I seek out when I’m in need, because as Luke 6:45 states, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Lord, fill my heart with good, so that my mouth speaks a testimony to you.  Make me an effective steward of your great love. Amen

Hope for the Broken-Hearted

We began a new sermon series this week on “Thankfulness” using Psalm 138 as our scripture reference.  This psalm is full of good stuff, but I’d like to dig into just a few verses.  Verses 3, 6-7 say, “When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.”  “Though the Lord is on high, He looks upon the lowly, but the proud He knows from afar.  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me.” (there is a study note in my Bible that says – He looks upon the lowly “with favor”).  These verses reference back to Psalm 113:5-6 which says, “Who is like the Lord, our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?”  Also, Isaiah 57:15 which says, “For this is what the high and lofty One says – “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Are you brokenhearted?  Do you think you are so unhappy that this can’t be what God had planned for your life?  Here’s some good news for you!  God himself will revive your broken heart!  Maybe things have happened to you, so you can experience God himself reviving your heart!  What might this look like?  Is there an example of this in the Bible you ask?  Yes, there is!  Psalm 18:6 says, “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.  From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears.”

The psalmist could have just said, “God helped me.”  But instead, in Psalm 18:9, 16-17, he gives us this great picture of how God helped him:

“He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under His feet.”  “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.  He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.” 

Isn’t that fantastic?  God is in His temple and yet our cries come into His ears.  This reminds me of James 5:4 which says, “The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”  He is not too big or mighty or busy to hear our cries.  Then, not only does He hear our cries, He takes action in a big way by parting the heavens and reaching down from on high to pull us out of the depths.  Aren’t you thankful to serve such an amazing God?  Let’s give Him praise with all our hearts!!

Are We There Yet?

Our daughter-in-law, Gwen, is creative, resourceful, thoughtful ... and a really good Mom. So, when preparing for a thousand-mile family trip, she came up with some clever ways to help their two-year-old daughter not only endure the drives, but enjoy them as much as she could. Next to Abigail was a box teeming with her favorite books, and when she tired of them for a time, out came the stash of stickers, always fun. If the stickers also ran their course, there was a “cookie sheet and magnets” solution (which might have actually engrossed me for a time). It was a very compassionate thing Gwen did for a young child facing a long journey.

Sometimes in life we feel like a kid on a car ride. We want to become what we want to become, now; we want to achieve what we want to achieve, now; we want to arrive where we want to arrive, now. The actual journey we travel, however, and the speed at which we traverse it are anything but the straight-line, no-stops path to paradise we envisioned at the onset. We navigate twists and turns we never anticipated; we encounter detours and delays we never wanted. In charitable terms, we “take the scenic route,” and, eventually, something inside cries out in frustration, “Are we there yet? How much longer?”

God’s itinerary is always different than our own—far better, and far better for us. He turns our twists into humility, and steers our turns into hope. He builds perspective from our detours, and instills patience through our delays. In time, we “arrive,” not in a worldly sense, as in fame and fortune, but at a far more satisfying place—the kingdom of God, His fulfilling reign in our lives. 

So, the apostle James says, “Be patient ... stand firm ... don’t grumble.” He compels us to consider those who have gone before us—the prophets who persevered to the end, and Job, who endured to restoration. God is in this journey with us, just as He was with them; He knows our trip can be arduous, frustrating, and painful at times, so He diverts our attention away from ourselves, and He sets our sites on the glory that lies ahead and toward the care of those who sojourn with us. For, says James, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”

God, this journey is full of beauty at times, and painfully difficult at others. Draw me to yourself and in service to others today, that I might endure, they might flourish, and you would be glorified. Thank you for your compassion and care for me. In Christ, I pray. Amen.

[Click here to read today’s Scripture in James 5:7-11.]