Daily Devotional Tuesday 8th December 2020
by William MoodyJames 5:13–16
The Prayer of Faith
13 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.1
Footnotes
[1] 5:16
Or The effective prayer of a righteous person has great power (ESV)
James is encouraging a life in which we take everything to the Lord in prayer, both our joys and trials (v13). Christianity is about having an ongoing living relationship with God through Jesus.
In the case of sickness James encourages prayer from the elders alongside the anointing with oil (v14). The anointing with oil was a common medical practice in those days and for us today it surely means seeking prayer alongside the best medical practice available.
This passage encourages an expectation that God will heal. Often God does heal but that might not always be God’s will (see 2 Corinthians 12 v7-9).
As we consider sickness we need to realise that as well as physical healing there needs to be spiritual healing in the forgiveness of our sins (v15b-16). A healthy person is not someone who has a fit body but who is not in a right relationship with God through Christ.
Confessing our sins to each other takes wisdom and humility (v16). We must realise that we are all follow strugglers and we need to help and support each other as we seek to follow Christ and fight against sin.
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