James 5:13-20 Prayer Power

“Prayer is certainly a high and holy privilege.  To think that, as God’s children, we can come freely and boldly to His throne and share with Him our needs! … Instead of complaining about his situation, a mature Christian talks to God about it, and God hears and answers his prayers,” my commentary says.

When we are suffering in difficult circumstances that are not the result of sin or the chastening of God, our prayers should be requests for the wisdom we need to understand the situation and use it for God’s glory, it says.

My commentary was careful to dissect the section on prayers for the sick.  It said that in this section, the person is sick because of sin.  He was being disciplined by God.  The elders were having to come to him because he could not come to them in the church because he had been removed from the fellowship by church discipline.  The person then confesses his sin.  He is healed by “the prayer of faith”.  1 John 5:14-15 tells us what this is:  “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will …”  “The prayer of faith is a prayer offered when you know the will of God.  The elders would seek the mind of God in the matter, and then prayer according to His will ... It is not one person praying; it is the body of elders – spiritual men of God – who seek God’s will and pray.  James did not instruct the believer to send for a faith healer.  The matter is in the hands of the leaders of the local church.”

I also read a very important section:  “We must never confess sin beyond the circle of that sin’s influence.  Private sin requires private confession; public sin requires public confession.  It is wrong for Christians to hang dirty wash in public, for such confessing might do more harm than the original sin.”

Thank You for all of this and more that I read today, Father.  Help me to know Your will and to adjust my prayers to it.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford