Pray individually and with others

James 5:13-18 – Praying individually and with others

Introduction

Have you ever had one of those days when everything that could go wrong did go wrong? What about a whole week like this? Or a whole year, like 2020? What do we do in times like these? The apostle James tells us to pray.

But things aren’t all bad, are they? We all have roofs over our head and for the most part we are doing ok. What do we do in times like these? The apostle James tells us to pray.

When our faith is tested, or when things are going well, we must be constant in prayer. Why? Because prayer is the best way to live our lives. For it is living our lives as legitimate children of God, following him wherever he goes, submitting our lives to his will, his desires.

Whether we are living in times of good and plenty, serious illness, sin-sick souls, or sin-torn relationships, prayer is always the way we should respond to God's grace in Jesus Christ.

Today we will see that we should pray all the time, during good and bad times, individually and with friends, and pray with confidence and trust.

Background

James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, is writing at a very early time in the Christian church to Jewish Christians who have been scattered throughout the Roman empire. From the context of the letter, it seems that they may have been using the liberty of their salvation as an excuse to live like much of the world during their day.

James is exhorting them to live in single-minded devotion to God as his children who have been redeemed by Christ, rather than living as the world. James is telling them that they cannot say they love God and live just like the world.

Exposition

We are going to look at the importance of prayer in this passage under three main points: 1) praying individually; 2) praying with others; 3) notes on the effectiveness of prayer.

During any and all times God invites us to seek him in prayer. He invites us to seek him when we need help and when we are happy. In times of affliction we should rest in his sovereignty. In times of plenty we should delight and live in thankfulness for his sufficiency.

Pray individually (v. 13)

First, James tells us that we should pray individually when we are suffering affliction, or quite literally, suffering misfortune.

During times of misfortune (v. 13a)

When we are suffering misfortunes such as hardship, distress, pain, illness, trouble, difficulty, adversity, or calamity, God invites us to cry out to him in prayer for help. Why? Difficult times or trouble in our lives can make us cynical about God’s goodness and love, or perhaps even rebellious against him. If we get cynical we can easily abandon our spiritual practices that push us closer to God. We know that we are God’s children and our true source of joy and delight is found in him. So, we must fight and battle against cynicism, bitterness, and rebellion.

James tells us in one word (in the original) what we should do in trials where we experience physical or emotional harm…pray. As we do this, we are echoing Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane when he fell on his face and said, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus knows and understands suffering affliction or misfortune. He lived a life in obscurity, and sorrow. He was a man acquainted with grief and sorrow. He knew what it was like to pray the prayer of lament. Yet, for the joy set before him, he bore all of this suffering while being constant in prayer. And he ultimately bore the eternal, terrifying wrath of God on the cross so that we would be able to be called children and have access to God through prayer in the Spirit.

We should note from this that prayer during suffering can be for relief, but it doesn’t always have to be. Sometimes it can simply be for strength. When we know that it is God’s will that we go through what we are going through, we simply pray the first part of the Lord’s prayer, “your will be done”, just like Jesus did.

James is telling us that prayer is a great source of strength as we go through afflictions. For in it we enter a life like Jesus’ where we say, like Jesus, “I don’t do anything except what I see my Father doing.”

During times of cheerfulness (v. 13b)

When things are going like a dream for us, when we are happy and things are going well, when we are in good spirits, happy, cheerful, merry, or encouraged, we should cry out to God with a song or prayer of praise or thankfulness. God invites us to sing songs of praise or give prayers of thanks. Why? It is easy to forget God when we don’t need him. Ease and affluence can make us complacent, lazy, and to forget God. Think about the biggest times of spiritual decline in your life. Were they in times of trouble or times when everything was going well?

Now, of course, I understand that there are outliers, there always are, but, in general, we grow closer to God during times of suffering and trials, as long as we can keep from bitterness and cynicism. This is why James tells us in one word (in the original) to sing praise. Praise is making a big deal of God in delight. It is a prayer of thankfulness put to music. When you sing praise to God, you are praying, for you are speaking with him, acknowledging who he is and all he has done.

We are saying that our Father’s will is good, perfect, and acceptable, and are rejoicing in his blessings. We acknowledge him to be the Father of lights, the giver of every good and perfect gift. All our good is from his hand and should be used as a springboard to give him praise.

We acknowledge that not only has he given us good gifts in very real, tangible ways, like a house, job, cars, etc., but he has given us the greatest gift of all, Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection. Christ’s finished work is the greatest of all gifts, and even if we didn't even have food or shelter, we should sing songs of praise to our amazing Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Pray with others (vv. 14-18)

Second, James tells us that we should pray together with other believers when we are sick. When we are suffering from a severe physical illness or a severe disease that is crippling, or looks to be to the death, we should summon others to pray.

Seek God for physical healing (vv. 14-15a)

The others that we are told to summon are actually the elders or presbyters of the church. Why the elders? These are men of the word and prayer. They are the spiritual leaders of the church, duly elected because they have met the requirements of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. They have been recognized for their maturity of faith, godly character, and being filled with the Spirit. They should be able to bring in their understanding of Scripture, and their deep faith to discern the Lord’s will and pray in faith that recognizes and receives God’s gift of healing.

The elders are to pray over the sick and anoint the person with oil symbolically giving the person over to God’s care. The word used for anointing is a physical word, but doesn’t necessarily imply that it was medicinal. It was more than likely a physical action with symbolic significance. The person is being set apart or consecrated for God. As the elders pray for the sick person, they are setting this person apart for God’s special attention. They pray in the name of the Lord, the name of Jesus. They are praying under the power and authority of Jesus, invoking his name, praying in faith for healing of the body. The oil symbolizes God’s care and God’s ability to heal them.

Verse 15 is tricky and has had much ink spilled over it. Is it saying that the prayer of faith will heal and save? There are no conditionals here. So, what is going on? Will it always work?

James speaks of the prayer of faith. What I believe this teaches is that the true prayer of faith acknowledges God’s sovereignty in everything and that God’s will must be done. It recognizes that God does not have to heal, but that he can. The faith we pray with is always faith in the God whose will is to be done. But only sometimes do we have faith that comes with an assurance that a particular request is within that will.

To ask ‘in Jesus’ name’ isn’t just an add-on at the end of the prayer, but remembers it is God’s will, desires, and purposes. It knows that requests made ‘in God’s will’ are granted.

Prayer for healing that is prayed in the confidence that God will do it will bring healing, but only when God wants it to. And it seems what James is saying is that in some cases God gives this gift of faith.

You can’t drum up this kind of faith no matter how good or holy you are. The reality is that most of the time we won’t know whether it is God’s will to heal, so we shouldn’t pray with such an absolute finality that people get the impression that God must heal them. Quite frankly, in this life, most of the time we won’t be able to know that it is God’s will to heal a person.

So, when we sincerely and fervently pray for healing for someone, which we should, and nothing happens, and perhaps they get worse and die, it isn’t that we somehow lacked faith, or the person lacked faith. It is neither of their faults, rather, God simply chose not to heal. It wasn’t his will, and so this “prayer of faith” wasn’t there.

At any rate, though this might be a bit confusing, the bottom line is that the prayer isn’t what heals them, nor is their faith what heals them. It is God alone. When it is God’s will to heal someone, Jesus will absolutely raise them up, or heal them.

Seek God for spiritual healing (v. 15b-16)

The thing we must remember is that physical sickness is not the only sickness there is. There is also spiritual sickness which leads to spiritual death, sin. And sometimes our physical illnesses are tied to our spiritual illnesses. So, when we become sick, we have time to evaluate our hearts and lives. It is during these “down times” that we can see if we are in need of spiritual healing as well. So, what should we do when we need spiritual healing? James tells us. Pray for forgiveness of sin.

James tells us that a prayer of confession of sin is guaranteed to be answered. God will hear and will forgive. Healing is conditional upon God’s will, but so is forgiveness. The difference between the two is that forgiveness is God’s will in every circumstance if we confess it to God and trust in Christ for forgiveness through his life, death, burial, and resurrection. Whereas, healing is not always his will. Forgiveness is what Christ accomplished and it is always available to us.

But there is something more going on here than just the individual who is sick and has had time to contemplate their life while they lay on their bed. Yes, they have looked into their soul, seen their sin, asked God for forgiveness, and have been prayed over and given assurance that they have forgiveness of sins. But it seems like their sins might have gone a little deeper than individual, private sins. It seems that their sins might be corporate ones, damaging the whole body. This is why it says that we should confess our sins to one another and pray for one another so that we may be healed. What is going on here?

James doesn’t say that every sickness is tied to sin. Jesus explained this to his disciples in the book of John. But he does teach us that some may be. But what kind of sins are they? They are probably not private sins. They are probably corporate sins. Sins against the body. Sins of the tongue, sins of personal lust and desire that harm others. These sins are probably repeated intentional sins that ultimately may have brought about this illness. If this is so, confession of sins is needed.

I don’t think this tells us to have accountability groups and tell our private sins to one another. These seem to be sins that are harming one another and are public. In general, the level that the sin is committed is the level that repentance is needed. Public sins need public repentance. Private sins need private repentance. But we all need prayer.

Final notes on the effectiveness of prayer (vv. 17-18)

Third, we see the effectiveness of prayer. The last two verses should encourage us. It tells us of Elijah. Why is he important here? Elijah was a human just like us, with similar passions and flaws. He prayed earnestly and God answered him. He is just like us. He had high highs and low lows. He would go from being extremely committed to God in faith and then fall right into despair and depression. At times he could be brave and resolute, and then the next minute he would run for his life at the slightest danger. At other times he could be selfless and then get caught up in self-pity. Through it all he was right with God by faith. His righteousness was by faith. He didn’t earn it. Rather, it was given to him by the righteousness of Christ applied to him.

What is very interesting about the story that James brings up is the context of what was going on. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal on this issue of prayer. Each group called upon their God to accept their sacrifice.  They both wanted a fire for their sacrifice, proving that they were accepted by their God. Elijah shows them that God is real. He put his confidence or trust in God as the one who would accept his sacrifice and answer his prayer. He risked his life on an answer to prayer.

Prayer for Elijah was not an afterthought. It was the very core of God being real and true. The Baal worshippers tried to drum up their false god to accept them, even by shedding their own blood, but Elijah had Jesus’ shed blood for him, so he was accepted by God and be in relationship with him, so he could simply pray to God and God would hear him because he was God’s child.

The prayer that Elijah prayed in this story though is the prayer for no rain for three and a half years. This is no slight prayer. This was a bold and God-honoring prayer. Yet, Elijah prayed it even though he was a mess. He didn’t have to clean himself up to pray it, he came warts and all. The prayer of a righteous person is very effective. Effective enough to stop rain for over three years! And then pray one more time and it rained again.

Prayer is effective and powerful. It is powerful enough to draw us out of misery, keep us from forgetting God in plenty, bring about healing from physical ailments and spiritual ailments as well. Prayer is something that we should be doing all the time.

Application

So, what have we seen? We should pray during good times so we don’t rest our confidence in ourselves and our own righteousness. We should thank God every day for all that he has done for us both in Christ and in the things we have.

We should also pray during bad times so we don’t become cynical and bitter toward God. We should rest in his sovereignty and pray that God would give us the strength to be able to follow his will even when we must take up our cross and follow Jesus to persecution, or bear sufferings in this life.

We should pray when we are physically sick. We should call the elders of the church and ask them to pray over us. We should ask God to give them discernment and wisdom as they pray. We should remember even through this that God may not heal us. This may be part of his refining process in us. We should even use our physical sickness as a time to evaluate our devotion to God. Are we living in outright, defiant sin? Do we need to confess our sins to God? Have we harmed other people within the church? Do we need to go to them and confess our sins, seeking to be reconciled?

We should also pray when we are spiritually sick. We should remember that this sickness will lead to us wandering from God. Thus, we must repent of it quickly, knowing that God will forgive us through Christ.

Finally, we should rest in confidence that it doesn’t take a super Christian to have our prayers heard. Just as Elijah was a mess, so are we, but we are God’s children. God will clean us up. Our job…get out of his way, praying in thankfulness when things are going well so we will be kept from self-reliance and wandering from God. We should also pray for help when things are going bad so that we don’t grow cynical and bitter. We should also pray for physical and spiritual healing. We should keep short accounts with God so that we will keep in continual prayer. Sin divides. If we confess, it restores. Our job is to stay walking in step with the Spirit through prayer and confession.

We must remember that we should pray all the time. It is something that we should do individually and with others. We can pray with confidence and trust because our prayers are heard only because of Christ’s righteousness, not ours.