Thursday October 28, 2010

"Journey Through James - Part 11"

James 5:13-20

The Prayer of Faith

 ¹³Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. ¹⁴Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
 ¹⁷Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. ¹⁹My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, ²⁰remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Our Journey Through James comes to an end today. And what a great way to end our journey - with prayer. Prayer is such an important part of our walk with the Lord. Communication is one of the most important aspects of any relationships. So how do we communicate with God? Through prayer. Most of us only pray before meals, or before a big test, or when we need something. Those times of prayer are not bad, but we need to be in a constant state of prayer. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, it says "pray continually." That doesn't mean that every word out of your mouth needs to be a prayer, but that you should constantly have an attitude of prayer about you. Tell God how you are feeling, tell him about your troubles, tell him what you are happy about. Ask him for guidance, ask him for healing, ask him to reveal his truth to you through his word. Pray for each other.
My favorite part of this is where it says "Elijah was a man just like us..." Sometimes we put these bible characters in higher regard than ourselves, but the reality is that they were people just like us! There wasn't anything particularly special about them, but God chose them to do great works. Who knows, God might choose you too!
I encourage you to read through James all the way through on your own again. It's such a great book, and reading it all the way through helps you get the context of all that God is saying. I enjoyed taking this journey with you - I hope you did too!

Dear God, thank you so much for all that we have learned in reading through the book of James. Thank you that we can freely approach your throne in prayer. You are so holy and beautiful and amazing. Help us to have a constant attitude of prayer so that we can draw closer to you. Help us to place you at the highest importance in our lives. Nothing else compares to you Lord. We love you so much. In your son's holy name, amen.

Lots of love,
Aubrey <><