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Episode 9
Welcome everyone to the final issue of our series on Responding to Practical Issues in life. And the final issue that I will talk about is on Prayer.
PRAYER (PART 1)
Introduction
When you go out and eat in a restaurant, do you know what is the one common thing that you can find in almost all the menus in the restaurant? Can anyone guess? That’s right. It is the Add-Ons.
Add-Ons are additional items to the main dish. Sometimes you order, but I’m guessing that most of the times you don’t. Because add-ons are good to have, but they are not a must have item or they are not a necessary part of your meal.
For many of us, prayer is like the add-ons that we find in the menu. There is prayer in the menu of our life because it is good to have. But most of the time, we don’t choose prayer from the menu of our life. Because it is not a must have item or because it is not a necessary part of our life. Because prayer is an add-on item in the menu of our life. James exhorts us as he did to the early church on the importance and necessity of prayer, especially in the context of trials in life. In other words, if we want to triumph through trials, then prayer must be the main dish in the menu of our Christian life.
Take It To The Lord In Prayer
And James was very specific when he exhorts us to pray. From today’s text, which is James 5:13-20 we can derive four specific directions in which James exhorts us to pray.
Let me unpack them one at a time. Here’s the first one:
I TAKE IT TO THE LORD IN PRAYER FOR OUR SUFFERINGS (V13)
This is what James said in v13: Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. James, like Paul, is teaching us to pray in every circumstance. James is basically telling us that our response to suffering ought to be seeking for God’s comfort through prayer, and our response to happy times ought to be seeking for God’s glory through praise.
In other words, James is exhorting us to turn to God in prayer in every circumstance; in joy or sorrow, in our highs and lows, prayer is and will always be the right response, especially for us as Christians.
And that’s the problem, isn’t it? Because to be honest, usually prayer is not our immediate response in every circumstance. So why is that the case?
Let me ask you a personal question: When is it the hardest time for you to pray? Perhaps for some of you, it’s when you go through some really tough times and you get so weary and worn out that it becomes so hard for you to pray.
Or for some of you, it’s when you are so busy with your work, business, studies, family, relationships such that it becomes hard for you to find time to pray.
And interestingly for some of you, it’s when you are doing so well in life such that you don’t see the need of God and therefore you don’t pray.
Why is it so difficult or hard for us to pray in every circumstance as James teaches us? Is it really because we are too tired or too busy or too happy that we forget to pray? Of course not, right?
Let me submit to you the reason why. Here’s why: It is your heart and my heart issue. Because prayer is a posture of your heart towards God. When your heart does not believe and value God, and when your heart feels distant from God, or your heart feels that God is distant from you. That’s when we don’t pray. That’s when it becomes hard for us to pray.
Here’s the bottom line: We don’t pray not because we forget God. We don’t pray because our heart neglects God.
So remember, both in good and bad times, our hearts can easily be deceived and make us think that we don’t need God, that God makes no difference in our lives. And James is reminding us today that we desperately need God even more than we can imagine. And that’s why he exhorts us and teaches us to pray in every circumstance; whether we are suffering or cheerful, take it to the Lord in prayer.
I Take it to the lord in prayer for the sick (vs14-15a)
Next, James exhorts us to take it to the Lord in prayer for the sick. Here’s what James said in v.14-15: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. In these two verses, James is talking about praying for a specific group of people in the church. Those who are sick. Most believe that this is in the context where a person is bedridden. And so James exhorts this person or his family to call for the elders of the church to pray for him.
These elders would be the Pastoral leaders or the lay leaders in the church. Now this implies that one of the roles of the leaders in the church is to pray for the church, for the people.
I remember last year one of our members called me to go and baptise his father who accepted Christ in his sick bed and to pray for healing from his cancer.
I brought along some of my lay leaders. We went and baptised his father and prayed for healing by anointing him with oil. It was an encouraging time both for the family and for those of us who went to pray.
Oil was used for different purposes in the Scriptures. It was used as a sign or symbol of the Holy Spirit’s anointing, and it was also used for medicinal purpose. In this context, both can be applied.
So can we still use oil to anoint those who are sick when we pray for them? I believe so. But please don’t misunderstand this. The power of prayer is not in the oil that is being used. James tells us that it is the prayer of faith, or prayer offered in faith that will save the one who is sick, and God will raise him up.
Now there are two extremes when it comes to prayer of faith. The first extreme is those people who believe that every time you pray and have enough faith, God will answer your prayers. In other words, you can get what you want from God if you have enough faith. And that, is totally untrue and unbiblical.
The second extreme is those people who prays. They may even pray a lot but deep down in their hearts they don’t believe that their prayers are going to make any difference at all. But they still pray. And perhaps it could be that prayer for them is just a habit that they have cultivated as a Christian tradition without any confidence that prayer will make any difference.
Do you happen to know anyone from either one of the extremes? Perhaps you may even find yourself in one of the extremes.
I want to submit to you that James is teaching us that the power of prayer does not come from the faith of the one who is praying. Rather, the power of prayer comes from the One we are praying to. Who you pray to is far more important that how much faith or conviction you pray with. So, take it to the Lord in prayer with confidence for those who are sick. Prayer of faith is to pray with confidence, not based on our faith or conviction that God will answer our prayers. Nothing wrong with that. But James is exhorting us to pray with confidence that is based on the One to whom we are praying to.
Why? Because He is the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God, all-merciful and gracious God. And when we do that, the focus of our prayers for others becomes God’s holy purpose for the ones we are praying for.
For instance, this is how I ended up praying for the father of my church member. I prayed, “God that which is impossible for men is possible for you. God who heals, come and heal our brother. But if you want to bring him with you, then give him your peace and courage to face death and joyfully meet you face to face. Amen”
Take it to the Lord in prayer for our sufferings. Take it to the Lord in prayer for the sick. When we return for the final episode, I will share with you the remaining two points on prayer that James exhorts us. Until then continue to stay safe and stay tuned. God bless!
Word count: 1,520
Discussion Questions