James 5:13-16
The Prayer of Faith
13 Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. 14 Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
What the passage says
V. 13 Prayer is to be offering during the time of joy and sadness
V. 14 Believers are to offer prayers for people, who are in suffering. Have you ever been in a situation that your agony was severe you couldn’t say a word? That is when the family of faith surrounds that person and intercedes for them. The family of faith has a responsibility to carry that person to Christ.
V. 15 Confess, your sins to one another, requries a great among of humility. It drives us to let go of our pride and our own thoughts. That is when the Spirit works in us.
What does the passage say to me/us?
Don’t worry; we won’t have a session to confess our sins during next Sunday’s prayer time.
However, this verse teaches us a great secret about prayer. Prayer is not asking God what we want. Prayer is close to a wrestling match, like Jacob wrestling the angel, letting go of ourselves. Confession is not conveying a list of things I didn’t do right, during the day. Confession is a time praying and wrestling to let go of our thoughts our way of life, so Jesus gets some space to work in our lives.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
This is called the ‘Jesus prayer.’ In the ancient practices, believers were to repeat this prayer over and over. (Literally… over and over)
What is the main point of this prayer?
It is to remember that Jesus is our Lord. And us living according to our way, makes us sin because we do not give space for our Lord to be part of our life.
When we confess our sins, God promised to work through our prayer.
“The Prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” (v. 15 NRSV).
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. (*100)
Click to subscribe to our Daily Devotion.
You will receive a devotion in your inbox every morning.