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

What's the Rest of the Story?

Luke 13:10-17


The synagogue leaders were furious with Jesus because he broke the law: he healed on the Sabbath. How dare he. But what was the reaction of the people? They were 'delighted with all the wonderful things he (Jesus) was doing.' (v. 17)

A small part of me thinks, somewhat self-righteously: of course they were delighted. We're always delighted when 'the man' gets taken down a peg, aren't we? When authority that we don't like is busted? When dictators are deposed? When hypocrites like these synagogue leaders are called out and publicly humiliated?

But is that what is going on here? That is part of it. But there is something deeper: Jesus healed a woman who had struggled with a physical disability for 18 long years. And what was her response to this miracle? Verse 13 is very clear: "She straightened up and praised God." Everyone who knew her had to be amazed by what they saw.

Don't you wonder what happened next? Did she go home and continue to praise God? Or did she fall back into old, sinful patterns? If she is human like you and me, my guess is that it is a combination of both. We want to live a righteous, God-pleasing life, but we fall short. Paul puts it so well in Romans 7:21-25:

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart.23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Lord, help me to reject sin and cling to you. You have given me all that I need. Help me to rest in that gift, and to share the gift of eternal life with others. Amen.

A GREAT WEAPON

Scripture Reading: James 5: 13-18

“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