True Faith Prays
Prayer is the foundation for a vibrant spiritual life. The least responded to question that pastors ask is this: how is your prayer life? Prayer is foundational from the beginning of scripture to the end. Not only was it a foundational piece of the New Testament church, it was just as vital for the patriarchs of the faith. From Moses to King David, to Daniel and the prophets, to Jesus himself and his disciples, prayer has been a constant in the history of the church.
Not only is this true in scripture, we see it in every church age to follow. The bottom line is this: if your faith is true, it will be full of prayer. Often today we pray more for our meals than we pray for people. Intercession has become an old school term instead of a cornerstone piece of the battle armor wielded in the spiritual war we engage in today.
If your faith is missing vitality, it is likely it is missing prayer. Martin Luther went as far as to say this: “to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” A professor in Bible college once told our class: “if you have a sin habit you can defeat it with a prayer habit.” Let me ask you a question: if prayer were to become illegal, how much of your life would change? Would you gain a whole load of free time or would it change very little?
Prayer is the lifeblood of the believer. It is the soul of our movement. And it is often the most missing aspect of our Christian lives. James finishes his letter on this crucial subject and I don’t think it is by accident. But as James talks here he isn’t suggesting you pray, he assumes the true believer already is.
We are going to talk today about 3 kinds of prayer that James describes. And I want to challenge you to cultivate this crucial basic practice into your daily life. If we become a praying church, I believe that God will pour out revival in our midst.
The Prayer of Healing
Corrie Ten Boom: “is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” Is prayer our last ditch effort or something that we turn to first. Is prayer a part of our decisions or the flare we shoot off when things get really bad? Now we still must be wise in this, we trust in doctors and enjoy the gift of common grace that medicine gives us all today. But we must exercise our opportunity to pray and believe for God to heal the sick.
I don’t know about you but I have some verses that really nudge at me. John 14:12-13 says this, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
That is a wild statement. Now flip to John 21:25, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
Thought experiment for just a minute. Jesus said that we would do greater things than him as we operate in his name for his glory. Then, at the end of this chapter John says he did a whole bunch of other stuff. More than your library card can check out in a lifetime of book rentals…
Are you doing the math with me? God wants to do miracles in our midst. God wants to move in a powerful and life altering way. So in this equation, who is in the way? Us! We don’t think big enough, we don’t give God our all, we don’t pray and believe! We need to step into who God has called us to be church.
And it doesn’t just have to be the big stuff, pray for little things! I pray over skinned knees, headaches, and for my kids and all the little bugs that my kids captured in their little jars to all have a good night sleep. Why? Because our God is a God of the big and the small. Because I want to teach my kids that their Father in heaven cares about every little thing in their life.
We don’t just go to God when it’s terminal and we have no other option, we go to him for every little thing big and small. We bring it all to our Dad in heaven who loves us, cares for us, and has the power to do that wonder working power in our lives. He can do it, and we can turn to Him whenever we need him.
The Prayer of Confession
One of the biggest things holding you back from deliverance is confession. We all battle in this world. We all fight different battles. But we need not fight those battles alone. James gives us a promise here in this passage: if you confess to your brother or sister in Christ and pray for one another, you will be healed.
Many wounds come with sin. Some of us deal with physical wounds, spiritual wounds, or even mental wounds. Sin has ravaged our world. But if we trust in the Lord God, and we believe his instructions for us in this, we can experience freedom.
We have talked a lot about how pride can keep us from experiencing a great move of God, bother corporately and in our own lives. This is what it all leads to right here. We don’t confess because we have pride. We don’t want people to see the brokenness of our lives. But can I encourage you, God already sees! Don’t worry about what someone else thinks about you, worry about what God is doing in you!
If you are more concerned with what God is doing, you will gladly share. You will gladly become more dignified than this as King David said, because your concern is God and his instruction, not on what others think and feel about you. Freedom is on the other side of confession. Drag that darkness into the light, and breathe the free air once again.
The Prayer of Compassion
Verses 19 and 20 show the incredible value of compassion and concern for other people. We can’t get so lost in this fight that we forget about our fellow friends in Jesus. We look up so that we can look out to others. God has not just called your pastor to look after and care for the people of God, he has called all of you! It’s a lot more convenient to pin that all on your pastor and let him deal with it.
Don’t believe me? Ephesians 4:11-12, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
We all are in this. Imagine the power of the church if not just your pastor is doing his part. Imagine the church on all cylinders. Imagine the kingdom of God with each one of us concerned and caring for those God has entrusted us to.
Someone needs to hear this: the kingdom of God is bigger than your problems. When all you do is focus on your stuff and your problems, you are living in disobedience. If all you do is complain and see your picture, and refuse to step back and maybe see how something might affect someone else, you are in the wrong.
James ends his letter with others because he knows how important that this is. Jesus is all about less of us and more of him. He is all about stepping back and seeing the big picture and refusing to hone in on our own stuff. That is exactly what he did when he came off of his throne in heaven and came down to earth. He left his perfection for our mess. And praise God he did! We would be stuck in the multitude of sins described here!
Harsh challenge here for you: don’t be selfish. Have a heart for others, have a burden for lost souls, and carry the mission of God instead of the mission of your own life. Jesus’ mission is of utmost importance, and we need you. Get in the game.
Conclusion
It always tickles me when people tell me they are looking for God’s will. I don’t say that with a lack of compassion, I say that as a lack of understanding for some of us. Let me ask the class, does God want you to pray? Boom. You know God’s will.
Now it is just a timing issue we struggle with. He will reveal his answer in his time. But prayer is something that 100% of the time IS God’s will! So step into his will, exercise your right as a follower of Jesus and walk in your royal identity in Christ. God WANTS to hear from you. So let him in.
We started with the first prayer James speaks to and that is one of healing. Are you believing for God in a time of need for healing? What is the worst thing that can happen? Nothing? I love what Soren Kierkegaard says, “prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.” At the very least, your prayer changes you by showing you to turn to God in your time of need.
Believe for the best, stand for God’s promises and truth, and if he does a miracle, praise God! And if he doesn’t right then and there, maybe he is doing a different kind of miracle. Our job isn’t to make miracles happen, our job is to pray to the one who can. Do your part.
Second, we talked about the prayer of confession. Some of us in this room just need to get alone with God and blow up his inbox a little bit. Have you ever had someone vent and talk for an hour straight and dump their life in your lap? Exhausting right?! How many have been that person to do the dumping? God can handle it! He wants to hear from you. This is part of letting go.
Psalm 55:22, cast your burdens upon the Lord, and he will sustain you. God has big shoulders. He already saw your sin anyway, confessing to him is a powerful start. Then, confess to a brother or sister and have them pray for you. You weren’t meant to walk through this alone! So don’t. Don’t isolate yourself and become easy prey for the enemy of your soul.
Last, the prayer of compassion. We have some lost people out here friends, how about praying for them? One of my favorite things to do is walk in my cul-de-sac and praying over houses and lost people. They don’t even know I am doing it. I don’t know all their names, but I am praying for God to do a work in their life.
Pray for this campus across the street. Keep praying for that wayward son or daughter, keep believing for God to do a work in them. Countless men and women of God were born into the kingdom because of faithful mothers and fathers that prayed. Intercede, dig in, be a watchman on the wall, this is our right and this is our privilege. Prayer changes things, and it even changes us. Let’s get in the fight.