Question: Since the prayers of a righteous man are effective, then why is consistent/persistent prayer for a particular circumstance not effective, but the circumstance only grows intensely worse?
Most everyone in this room knows, from experience, what it is like to desperately want God to act in a certain way. Your desire for a movement of God has driven you to your knees night and day, and you plead with God to work.
James 5:16 is on repeat in your mind—“the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” or, as the King James translates, “the prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Unfortunately, James 5:16 is a verse that has been taken out of context and taught to others in such a way that it seems as if God guaranteed that we will get whatever we pray for—especially if we pray in faith.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 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. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. —James 5:13–18 13
The book of James deals, to some extent, with
In chapter five, James came back to the subject of suffering.
James dealt specifically with
For this reason, James called on Christians to be patient (v.7) and steadfast (v.11) and to remember that God is compassionate and merciful (v.11).
But in the midst of suffering of all sorts believers are to
Not only are we to pray, but it is possible to have
James wrote that even while we experience suffering, we must continually pray and
Verse 15 presents some problems because it seems as if God guarantees healing for those who are physically ill.
If the person isn’t physically healed, does that mean the elders did not have faith? Douglas Moo’s comments are helpful:
Answering such a question involves us in the finely nuanced broader issue of the relationship between God’s sovereignty and our prayers. But we can say this much. The faith exercised in prayer is faith in the God who sovereignly accomplishes his will.
When we pray, our faith recognizes, explicitly or implicitly, the overruling providential purposes of God. We may at times be given insight into that will, enabling us to pray with absolute confidence in God’s plan to answer as we ask. But surely these cases are rare—more rare even than our subjective, emotional desires would lead us to suspect.
A prayer for healing, then, must usually be qualified by a recognition that God’s will in the matter is supreme. And it is clear in the NT that God does not always will to heal the believer. Paul’s own prayer for his healing, offered three times, was not answered; God had a purpose in allowing the “thorn in the flesh,” that “messenger of Satan,” to remain (2 Cor. 12:7–9)….The faith with which we pray is always faith in the God whose will is supreme and best; only sometimes does this faith include assurance that a particular request is within that will.
This is exactly the qualification that is needed to understand Jesus’ own promise: “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14). To ask “in Jesus’ name” means not simply to utter his name, but to take into account his will. Only those requests offered “in that will” are granted.
Prayer for healing offered in the confidence that God will answer that prayer does bring healing; but only when it is God’s will to heal will that faith, itself a gift of God, be present. As H. van der Loos puts it, “faith, forgiveness and healing are all three in essence dispensations of the grace of God. This implies that the relations between these three are not governed by the law of causality but by the will and intention of God.” —Douglas Moo, The Letter of James, 244-245.
James wanted us to know that sometimes sickness is the result of
Paul mentioned many who were “weak and ill, and some have died” because they took the Lord’s Supper flippantly. Paul also commanded the Corinthian believers to hand over the man who was living in sin “to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.” Even Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic who was immediately healed.
Now we can understand verse 16. First, notice the word
Those truths deal with
Those truths deal with those who are suffering for their
Those truths require those who are sick to call on the elders who pray in faith for healing.
Those truths reveal that God may—according to His sovereign purpose and will—provide physical healing.
The last sentence in verse 16 is a
The righteous person is not someone who is free from sin, but one who has been
The prayer highlighted here is a prayer of
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, —Ephesians 6:18
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. —Philippians 4:6
James 5:16 is not to be applied
• We pray because it expresses our
• We pray because it expresses our
• We pray because it grows us in our
Prayer is always about trust in God. This is what James wanted his readers to know and this is what we need to understand also.