Prayer 2021 - August 10 - What James Had to Say About Prayer pt 5

Scripture For Today:

1 Kings 6:18

“As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.”

What James Had to Say About Prayer pt 5

We have been studying what the Apostle James had to say about prayer. We have been studying the verses from James 5:13-18:

“Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any Merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? 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. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 

Confess your faults one to another, and pray on for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

 Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth by the space of three years and six months! And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.”

We studied the first part, “Is there any among you that is afflicted.”  We studied the second part last time, “Is any Merry?”  Today, we will study the last part, “Is any sick among you?”

What does James say if you or someone you know is sick? He’s very specific. He says, “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.”

What the intent here, is that if someone is sick, but able to pray for themselves, they should. We covered that under “Is any among you afflicted.”  What James is saying here, is if a person is so sick, they are unable to pray for themselves, THEN you call for the elders of the church to anoint the person with oil and pray for them.

This does not mean, what some Christians think, that if you have a headache, you must activate your church prayer chain, call the pastor and have him come over and anoint you with oil and say 12 Hail Mary’s or whatever, dance in a circle and then baptize you six times in the bath tub!

You may laugh, but there are people out there, listening to me right now, who want to call their pastor for every little thing that ails them.  “Oh, won’t you pray for my big toe? I stubbed it on the chair!”

 That is not what this verse means!  Your congregation will wear your pastor out if every person called for every little thing and expected him to come running over with a bottle of oil. Amen!

I can hear pastor’s right now saying, “Amen, brother Bob – preach it!”

I’m just going to stop right there for today.  WHY? Because I want to talk a bit more on this topic and if I get started right now, well, we will be going way over.

So, instead, I want to PRAY FOR YOU right now. Yup! Here’s your chance!  If you have a stubbed toe or a headache, I’m going to pray for you and you will experience something you never thought possible!  That’s right!

What is it? YOU will learn that it is YOUR responsibility to pray for yourself and your loved ones when something minor like that ails them. It may shock you!  It may offend you!

But guess what – it’s what James says YOU are supposed to be doing! Amen!

Let’s Pray!

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