The Prayer of Faith James 5:13-18 June 22, 2014

James 5:13-18 - Is anyone among you suffering. Let him pray James 5:13-18 - Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,” James 1:2 The individual at prayer (v.13) The elders at prayer (v. 14,15) The confessing community (v.16) The example of Elijah (v. 17,18)

1. The Individual at Prayer (v. 13) 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Paul in Eph. 6:18 – “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” Paul in 1 Thess. 5:17-18a – “pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; What kind of praying? Prayer for the spiritual strength to endure the trial with a godly spirit. Cheerful: A settled state of emotions rather than an outward circumstance. God is in control. Prayer and praise should be a regular part of the believers lifestyle.

2. The Elders at Prayer (14,15) 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. This person is not commanded to pray himself, but to call for the elders of the church to pray over him. The anointing refers to a physical action with symbolic significance. The value of the anointing does not lie in any physical connection between the action and the illness. The elders are praying for a physical healing of the person who has requested the prayer.

15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Anointing is subordinate to James’ main concern: prayer! The elders praying “over” the sick person in his bed and the Lord is intervening to raise the sick person up from that bed. James encourages the sick person to deal with any spiritual causes of illness that he is experiencing. It is “the prayer of faith”, or the “prayer offered in faith” that brings healing.

James 1:5-6 - 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting,

The error: “Certain preachers and writers make a great deal of this call for faith, insisting that a believer simply needs to have enough faith in order to receive healing from the Lord. The devastating result of this line of thinking is that believers who are not healed when they pray must deal with a twofold burden: added to their remaining physical challenge is the assumption that they lack sufficient faith. But this way of looking at faith and its results is profoundly unbiblical.”

The truth: “The faith exercised in prayer is faith in the God who sovereignly accomplishes His will. When you and I pray, our faith recognizes the overruling providential purposes of God.” Moo A prayer for healing, then, must usually be qualified by a recognition that God’s will in the matter is supreme. John 14:14 – “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” To ask “In Jesus’ name”, means not simply to utter his name, but to take into account his will. We pray for healing in the confidence that God will answer that prayer and will bring healing; but only when it is God’s will to heal will that faith, itself a gift of God, be present.

3. The Confessing Community (16) 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The exhortation to mutual confession and prayer in this verse is the conclusion that the readers are to draw from the discussion of prayer in verses 13-15. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. “The righteous person” = Anyone who has experienced the forgiving grace of God through Jesus, and therefore is part of the family of God. Your prayers are powerfully effective and working!

4. The Example of Elijah (17,18) 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. It is not his fervency, nor his frequency, but that he just prayed! Every believer has access to the kind of effectiveness in prayer that Elijah illustrates.

Take-Aways 1. All of life should be lived with immediate reference to God (v. 13) 2. We bring to him both our sorrows in prayers and our joys in praise 3. Physical illness (v. 14-15) and spiritual illness (16) are meant to cover every distress that comes our way. 4. While James does not pause to bring application, there is no situation where prayer is not the proper response. “Prayer will minister to us in the experiences which demand patience; patience will sustain us as we seek to engage in prayer.”