The Priority and Power of Prayer (I)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
You'd agree with me that most of us spend very little time thinking about the one activity that we perform every single day—an activity that is absolutely essential to life. You say, what activity? Well, it is the activity of breathing—breathing. The Canadian Lung Association defines breathing as, "the process that brings oxygen in the air into your lungs and moves oxygen through your body. Our lungs remove the oxygen, pass it through our bloodstream where it's carried off to the tissues and organs that allow us to walk and talk and move. Our lungs”—it continues—"also take carbon dioxide from our blood and release it into the air when we breathe out.”
Simply put, we can put it this way: we could define breathing as transporting oxygen into the body and carbon dioxide out of the body - simply put. But you really spend no time thinking about this reality. We don't. Did you know the average person, the average adult, breathes between 12 to 15 times per minute or about 20,000 times a day? We normally breathe about 500 to 700 millimeters of air with each breath, amounting to 535 cubic feet each day. Most people only breathe through one nostril at a time—I found that fascinating. The nostril in use changes every 15 minutes to three hours, depending on the individual.
While we can vary the rate of our breathing based on exercise, based on choice, it's impossible for a healthy person to voluntarily stop breathing entirely. If we do not inhale over a period of time—and we all have done this, we tried it as kids, right? Or perhaps even as adults for various reasons—carbon dioxide builds up in our blood and then we experience what scientists refer to as overwhelming air hunger. This is a reflex that God has built within our bodies, and it's a reflex that's absolutely crucial to human life. We need it desperately. Because without breathing, the body's oxygen levels then drop. They fall and fall to dangerous levels within minutes, leading to permanent brain damage and ultimately to death.
It's not surprising, then, that breath has sometimes been used as a metaphor for life. We'll speak of someone's last breath, for example, because that is the most obvious sign that physical life has left the human body. And, beloved, I believe that breathing is a powerful illustration of a spiritual reality, and it is this: what breathing is to our physical bodies, praying is to our souls. Let me say that again. What breathing is to our physical bodies, praying is to our souls. We absolutely cannot survive without it. We can't.
The human body can survive for weeks without food, we can survive for days without water, but it can only survive for a few minutes without air. Same is true spiritually when it comes to praying. We absolutely cannot survive without it. And that's the message of James here.
First, he's going to tell us to pray in all circumstances—two divisions, simple divisions, big divisions, and we'll get into the subdivisions later. But if you were to split this passage into two big headings, it would be an exhortation to pray in all circumstances, and secondly, he's going to tell us to pray with all confidence—pray in all circumstances, and pray with all confidence. Very simple, very easy. All circumstances, all confidence.
Now we can put it differently. This passage breaks into two sections, and we can put the two sections this way: it would call us to the priority of prayer, and then to the power of prayer. It underscores the priority of prayer and the power of prayer. The priority of prayer in the life of a Christian—well, pray in all circumstances. The power of prayer—well, pray with all confidence that God uses it to accomplish great and mighty things according to His purposes. Verses 13 and 14, "Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him."
So, let's begin tonight by looking at, under the first heading, pray in all circumstances. And here specifically, James underscores three particular circumstances for us. The first, it's very obvious. Three circumstances in the Christian life. Number one, the first one is suffering. The second one is cheerfulness. And, number three, and this probably gives you a hint where we're going, but that's going to come not tonight, Lord willing—the third one is sinful sickness. So suffering, cheerfulness, and sinful sickness.
James begins by asking his readers, do any of you fall under any one of these three circumstances? That's what he does. "Is anyone among you suffering?” “Is anyone cheerful?” “Is anyone among you sick?" Well, I realize that that really covers quite a lot, doesn't it? This evening I can stand here and ask, are you happy? You say no. I pray you don't say no, but if you say no, then you're suffering. If I were to ask, are you suffering? You say no, then you must be happy. You see, you're going to fall into one of these circumstances, and for each of these circumstances, James says there's a kind of prayer that is appropriate—the kind of prayer that is the proper response, a response that you can make in prayer.
In other words, what James is doing here is he's saying something that Scripture affirms repeatedly: prayer should be woven into all of life, all circumstances. For the Christian, prayer is not something that we do five times a day facing east. Prayer is not something we do on Shabbat. Prayer is not something we recite out of a book like parrots. Prayer is something we weave into our everyday lives, every single day.
You're familiar with what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "pray without ceasing;”—pray without ceasing. Or Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." How about the Lord? Our Lord taught us “that at all times we ought to pray and not lose heart,”—Luke 18:1. And, Ephesians 6:18, "praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit."
You see, Christians are not a people who have just had an occasional routine, and at times we pray. Christians are to be a praying people. As you read the New Testament, there's just a strong sense, the strong sense that we're not just only going to set aside times. That is true, but it's going to be our breathing, our spiritual respiration: praying people.
And so that fits with this passage because James says, he says, ‘Listen, there are times when you're suffering, and there are times when you're cheerful, and there are times when you're sick, and in every circumstance that you find yourself, turn it into what? Prayer.’ Turn it into prayer. For the Christian, beloved, prayer is absolutely crucial, and prayer is especially important when we find ourselves in the middle of life's troubles, life's trials, life's difficulties.
You remember how James began this letter, don't you? He began this letter by making exactly that point. In fact, turn back to James chapter 1 and verse 5 as he talks about the issue of trials. Look at what he says in that context: "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God." And now, as he concludes his letter, James returns to this critical issue of prayer, and its importance in the midst of life's trials and difficulties—prayer.
By the way, this is common in many New Testament epistles—to conclude the letter with a call to prayer. Let me just show us just one example. If you were to turn to, for example, Romans 15, verse 30, Paul concludes by saying this: "Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." And, by the way, you see all the Trinity here—Jesus Christ, the Spirit, and God the Father. Well, here at the end of Romans, he appeals for them to pray for him.
In other books, as he concludes them, he simply appeals for them as believers to be, themselves, devoted to personal prayer as well. You see this, for example, at the end of Ephesians, at the end of the letter of Philippians, at the end of the letter to the Colossians, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 3. And, when you get to that non-Pauline epistle, Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews concludes with a call to prayer in Hebrews 13.
Now, why is it that prayer deserves such a high priority in the lives of believers? Why is it? It is because prayer is so crucial to our life as believers. It's crucial, like breathing air, like air is to our bodies. Prayer is to our Christian life what breathing is to our physical life. Martin Luther says, and I quote and I love this, "As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray." Nothing is more foundational to the Christian faith than the place and priority of prayer.
Now every Christian faces a variety of circumstances in life. Sometimes life will be full of blessings and peace and tranquility and rest on every side and everything will be going well, and other times, it will be full of challenging trials, pains, struggles. In every circumstance, we must respond as Christ Himself would have responded. We imitate Him, right? We imitate Him.
The God-Man was often going off to a secluded place to pray. Or, to put it in the terms that we've used throughout this series, you and I, in all circumstances—every circumstance, any circumstance—we need to respond with true faith. We need to respond with true faith. James addresses here how we will respond with true faith to these three different circumstances. Let us look together under that first heading: prayer in all circumstances, the priority of prayer.
The first circumstance would be the circumstance of suffering, verse 13. That's as far as we will go tonight: the circumstance of suffering. So, the first circumstance that James said that we need to respond rightly to with true faith is the circumstance of suffering. Verse 13, "Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray." Back in chapter 1, you remember, James says that the response of true faith to painful trials is what?—is that quiet contentment that is typical of Christian joy. Count it all joy. "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials." Here, he added to that another aspect of how the godly responds to suffering. "Is anyone among you suffering?", James asks. And I have a sneaking suspicion that the answer would have been yes, yes. In any church, anywhere, any time, in any place on the globe, there will be believers who are suffering—people who are going through great difficulty in life.
Now the Greek word that James uses here, under inspiration, for suffering, is ‘kakopathei’. ‘Kakopathei”—it's a compound word. It means to suffer evil, or suffer ill, or suffer badly. It's used two other times in the New Testament, both by Paul and both in 2 Timothy. He's used it primarily in that context there, referring to persecution for the faith. He spoke of the imprisonment and the suffering he was going through in Rome, and his final imprisonment using this word ‘kakopatheo’ translated there, for example in 2 Timothy 2:9, “endure hardship”. In 2 Timothy 4:5, he told Timothy to be ready to face the same kind of persecution in his own life.
Well, what Paul warned Timothy, James' readers were already experiencing. James 2:6–7, you remember they were being treated unfairly in the courts. They were being mocked and cursed for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in chapter 5 of James, he spoke of their wages being withheld and urged them as believers to have ‘hupomoné’—to bear under the persecution with patience and imitate the Old Testament prophets in their enduring kind of patience. In fact, the same basic word, ‘kakopatheo’, is used in here in verse 10, describing the suffering of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
This word can relate to persecution for the faith, certainly, but we ought not to restrict it to persecution alone, exclusively. In fact, this word suffering, ‘kakopatheo’, is a general word that literally means, as I said, to suffer evil, to suffer ill. It has a sense of experiencing great difficulty. Alec Mottier, an excellent commentator in the book of James, he writes this, referring to this word: “it is any ill circumstance which may come upon us, any trial, anything of which we or an onlooking friend might say, ‘that's bad’.” So, anything that you and I would point to and say, ‘this is bad,’ is encompassed in this word ‘suffering’. It's trouble.
We could translate it in English this way: is anyone among you in trouble, in distress? It's very similar to how this Greek word is used. It includes everything, basically. It includes physical struggles, financial problems, marriage issues, pressures, setbacks at work, family struggles, persecution, loneliness, the death of a loved one, all the way to the daily pressures of work and family and marriage and life in the world here, in a broken world. So, let me ask you before we move on, beloved, do you find yourself tonight in trouble? Is your spirit crushed beneath a load of difficulty, hardship? Are the circumstances in your life right now pressuring you, weighing you down? Are you discouraged? Are you despondent? Are you worried about the future? Do you wonder how it is you're going to be able to accomplish all that is required of you, all that is on your plate, and you feel pulled from every direction? Have recent trials in your life stripped you of all the joy and spiritual stamina? If so, how should you respond?
Well, James tells you what you should do, what I should do. Verse 13, again, he says, "Is anyone among you suffering?" Yes, James, tell us. How do we respond? "Then he must pray." He must pray. And the Greek word here, translated "pray" in verse 13, is actually the most common Greek word in the New Testament for prayer, ‘proseuchesthō’. It's used 80 times to describe prayer, petition, asking God for help, for intervention.
Do you notice in this verse that James, by the way, doesn't tell us what to pray for? He doesn't tell us what the content of prayer ought to be. We may want to pray that the trial be removed. “God, take away this trouble, this trial that I'm facing. God, please take it away. Let this cup pass from me.” That's certainly appropriate to pray. Edmund Hiebert summarizes this well. He says, and I quote, "The present imperative”—that's the form of the verb, the continuous tense, ongoing— “The present imperative directs the sufferer to make it a practice to turn to God. Whenever he is in distress and in emotional tension, he is to turn to God. Instead of indulging in introspective self-pity or complaining loudly to others of his terrible situation, let him turn to God for refuge and strength." And then he concludes, "His prayer may not change the situation, but it can give the strength to bear it bravely as he submits himself to the divine providence."
As Hiebert notes, different people respond to suffering in different ways. Some respond with hysterics, others with an intense kind of self-reliance. “I'm going to change my situation my way. I want control.” Some complain and moan and lash out verbally at others, yet others withdraw into a private world of worry and anxiety and panic and preoccupation and self-pity. Are you a Christian who is, in any sense tonight, going through hardship, difficulty, distress, pressure? Are you in any way constricted, constrained? Are you being reproached? Are you struggling? Are you suffering? If so, James says, ‘You must pray.’ You must pray. You must pray. "Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray.”
When you are in a trial, when you are going through difficulty, turn upward to request grace and strength and wisdom and resolution. As I thought about this, isn't it interesting that as we go through trials, as we go through struggles, as we go through difficulties, as we go through suffering, there are basically three directions that we can turn. Only three, basically. We can turn inward and fret and worry. We can turn outward and hope that the circumstance will change or that somebody else will fix it for us. Or we can turn upward and cry out to the living God.
May I ask you, beloved, which one do you turn to first and which one do you turn to last? Which one do you turn to first? Which one do you turn to last? How often is the pattern inward, outward, then finally upward? James says, "Is anyone among you suffering?" Turn upward. Turn upward. It is a gift if you will allow your suffering and your trial to reflexively drive you upward to ask.
The text which so beautifully illustrates this, Psalm 50:15—a beautiful text. Psalm 50:15—this is God's invitation, beloved. This is God inviting you, inviting me. This is the sovereign God inviting His children: "Call upon Me in the day of distress. Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I shall rescue you, and you will glorify Me."
Charles Spurgeon calls this the “Robinson Crusoe text” because it comes up in Robinson Crusoe—a brilliant story—and Spurgeon noticed that and this is what he said about Psalm 50, verse 15. He said, and I quote, now follow closely, he said this, "First, here is your share: ‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble.’” That's your share.” “Secondly, here is God's share: ‘I will deliver thee. I will deliver thee.’ Again, you take a share—” he goes on, "you shall be delivered. And then again it is the Lord's turn—'Thou shalt glorify Me.’"
You see, here's a covenant that God, Himself, enters into with you who prays to Him and whom He helps. He says, ‘You shall have the deliverance, but I must have the glory. You shall pray, I will bless, and you shall honor My holy name.’ Here's a delightful partnership, isn't it? We obtain that which we greatly need, and God gets all the glory that is due unto His name.
But—there's a but—for that to happen, beloved, do you know what you have to do? You have to acknowledge that you are in trouble, that you are in trouble. You have to acknowledge that you need Him. You have to humble yourself. I have to humble myself to call upon Him. Ask Him to deliver you in ways that will glorify Him.
Over and over again, God invites us to call on Him to remove the trial. Psalm 107:6, “Then they cried out to Yahweh in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses." It's okay. It's okay to cry out to God to remove the trouble. Paul certainly prayed like that. You remember that passage that we've looked at again and again—2 Corinthians 12, the first few verses in that chapter. Paul gives us sort of an autobiographical account of what happened to him, as he had this opportunity to be caught up to the third heaven, have that glorious vision of the presence of God. And as a result of that, verse 7 says, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself!” “There was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!" And I'm not going to get into that. A lot of ink has been spilled on the issue—exactly what was Paul's thorn in the flesh.
You have this most common explanation: it's a physical ailment—perhaps his eyes. Because at the end of Galatians, he says, "See what large letters I have written you." He means by that physically large letters of the alphabet, because he has a problem with his eyes. So, we may surmise that maybe he had a serious physical problem, and that was his thorn in the flesh.
Others said, perhaps, it was really a person—maybe false teachers, there in Corinth, who were really making life very difficult for Paul, undermining his ministry and accusing him of all kinds of things.
Whether it is this or that, that is not the point at this point. But don't miss the point. Look at the next verse, verse 8: "Concerning this”—whatever it was—"I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me." Paul asked God to take it away. “Lord, deliver me from this.” It's okay to pray for God to take it away, and the Lord may choose to remove the trial. Or, just like here with Paul, He may choose to give you the same answer that He gave Paul. In verse 9, "He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’” It's okay to pray that God will remove the trouble. But God, in His own wise providence, may choose not to do that. And you and I have to trust Him to do what's right. Because our God always does what is right. He is good. He does what is right.
…that you and I face and encounter in life, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. And he says, if in the middle of those trials, he says, "if any of you lacks wisdom"—I don't know if you remember, but I'll say by way of reminder: the construction in the Greek text does not imply that there are some who lack wisdom and there are others who don't lack it, which is the impression that you get reading the English translation. Instead, the implication of the Greek text is, "if any of you lacks wisdom”—and you all do, then—"let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."
Now, why is it that we need wisdom in the midst of trials? This is what we ought to be praying for. This is what we ought to be praying about. What is it? What is it that we need wisdom for in the middle of trials? What is it? Well, without re-preaching the message—and I would really encourage us to refresh our memory concerning that—but what we need, what we need, the wisdom that we need in the midst of trials [is] we need the wisdom to see our trials as a source of joy because of the purpose of those trials—joy in the purpose of the trials.
That's exactly what He's admonished us to do back in verse 2, "Consider it all joy". And that doesn't come naturally. It doesn't come naturally to us to look at our difficulties and say, “Oh, I can rejoice in that.” We need God's wisdom to enable us to consider it all joy—not to be masochistic, to enjoy the trial. That's not what He's saying. But, rather, to see the outcome and rejoice in that, in the purpose of the trial. To see that, by going through this trial, we build spiritual strength and endurance, and it will draw us closer to the Lord and to behold a greater vision of God like Job did.
We also need wisdom in the midst of our trials to know how to respond in a godly way. And, so, James says, “Pray for wisdom.” Pray for wisdom. So, whenever we find ourselves in trouble of any kind, our first response should be what? To pray. We serve a God who can be trusted even in the dark. As you've heard it often quoted here, when we can't trace His hand in our circumstances, we can trust His heart. He's a faithful God. He's a good God. He's for us, not against us.
Now, beloved, I want us to see something now at this point. Turn to Acts 4. I want us to see that James is not just giving instruction kind of out of the blue here. He's taking what he himself had done in his life and then telling these believers to do the same in ours by way of extension. James—you remember, leader in the church of Jerusalem—not only he, but the whole church in Jerusalem had applied this very principle when they had faced trouble, suffering in the early years of the church. Acts 4 gives us an example of that.
Before the events of this chapter, the Jerusalem church had not experienced really any resistance from the religious rulers. However, following the healing of the lame man at the temple gate, in Acts Chapter 3, and then Peter's sermon calling for repentance, then the Jewish civil authorities—I mean the council, the Sanhedrin, you remember—they apprehended, they seized Peter and John, and they threatened them, commanding them not to preach any more sermons in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter and John's response—you remember what it was, right? They turned to them and said, “thank you very little,” and ignored the Sanhedrin's instructions and their threats, and returned to their brethren to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ again.
And when they went back to the church, what did they do in the midst of that persecution, in the midst of that suffering? Look at verse 23. Acts 4:23: "So when they”—Peter and John—"were released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them." Verse 24: "And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord." Now what they prayed for, in terms of petition, request, is summed up in verse 29. Here's the content: "Now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your slaves may speak Your word with all confidence." They said, God, notice what they're doing, notice what they're saying, notice their threats, and please deal with them and give us boldness all the more to proclaim the glorious gospel unashamedly.
You might remember a little bit later in the book of Acts—Acts 12—Peter was imprisoned, and really now, at that time, he was really imprisoned for execution time, this time. And what did the church do? They gathered. The church gathered, in the home of Mary the mother of John Mark, and they prayed. They turned upward.
James is telling the people to do in James 5 is not something new and different; it was something that he and his church had been doing throughout all the years of their church life. When trouble comes, you pray. When trouble comes, you pray. When trouble comes, you gather with other believers and you pray. It might be an organized prayer meeting like Wednesday night. It might be an informal, impromptu prayer time with friends at a coffee shop. It might be the solitary cry from your hurting, broken heart to God's listening ear. It's probably all of those at the same time or at any given time. But you pray. When suffering comes, true faith responds with prayer.
Prayer is the means that God has ordained for bringing change in us and at times in our circumstances. You see, you and I don't manipulate God with our prayers. He's not on the end of our prayer string and we have the privilege, then, to tell Him what to do. But, God chooses, in His sovereign wisdom, to work through our prayers.
And we can talk about that and we can explain that to a certain extent. But, you hold both side by side. In our finite mind, we cannot explain God's sovereignty and how our prayers work in that. There's a point where I just fall off the edge of the cliff in my answer and explanation, but the truth remains: God is sovereign, yet He chooses to work through our prayers. And that's enough for me. Spurgeon put it best when he said this: "Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence." Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence.
Prayer is the means that God has ordained for changing us, for strengthening us to face trials. Prayer turns on the tap of God's peace, turns on the tap of His power. And, as the approaching sirens chase away the thieves, so the terrors of a troubled heart is chased away when you trustingly lay your suffering at the feet of God in humble prayer. Worldly responses to suffering like complaining, self-pity, antagonism, self-reliance, worry, anger, anxiety—all of those thrown away, replaced by prayer. The Christ-like response to suffering is prayer, isn't it?
Isn't it prayer what Jesus did in the hour of His paramount suffering? In the shadow of the cross, the shadow of Golgotha, Gethsemane. He expressed His desires to the Father. He laid His heart out before His Father and then He consciously and submissively surrendered His desires to the plan of God: "Not My will, but Thine be done." Humble prayer. We…to imitate Christ. James says, then imitate Him at this very point: "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray." He must pray, in fact, the way he puts it.
As we bring this to an end this evening, James' message is very clear. In every circumstance of life, pray. Beloved, the whole of the Christian life is to be lived in communion with God. All of it. All of it. The good and the bad in the Christian life is to be lived in communion with God. The joyful and the heartbreaking in the Christian life is to be lived in communion with God, and that communion with God in good times, as we will see next time, Lord willing, and in bad times is to be manifested by prayer.
"Is anyone among you suffering?" What's the response? "Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful?"—as we will see. Are things going well? Has God blessed you beyond imagination? What's the proper response? "Let him sing songs." Let him sing praises. James' response to suffering is not simply to say, “Be patient. Hang on,” but rather to practically entrust yourself to the care of the Almighty God. And, there's only one way to do that. Pray. His point is then that prayer is always appropriate. It's always appropriate to pray.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones used to say, and I quote, "The one urge which should never be resisted is the urge to pray." A lot of urges in life need to be resisted, but the urge to pray should never be resisted, but rather cultivated. And that's what James is saying. Prayer is always, always appropriate. Pray when you're suffering. And, as we'll see, praise when you rejoice and sing when you're cheerful. In periods of trouble, in times of rejoicing, pray, praise, acknowledge that God is sufficient to help us, trusting Him, acknowledging Him as the Giver of every good gift. No matter what is happening in your life and my life, we should pray and we should give God thanks and praise Him.
James is calling on us in suffering to pray. In plenty—as we will see in detail next Lord's Day—to be cheerful, to rejoice, and sing and praise. Why? Because the Christian life is to be consecrated by prayer to God so that every pleasure is hallowed and every pain is sanctified. We're to so live the Christian life that every pleasure is made holy by our acknowledging that it comes from the hand of our loving, merciful, gracious, benevolent Heavenly Father.
“Lord, Lord, I don't deserve this. Thank You for this relationship. Thank You for these siblings. Thank You for my parents. Thank You for my brothers and sisters. Lord, You've given me all of this. I praise You, Lord. I don't deserve this and this and that and the other. Lord, I don't deserve this job You've given me. I love it and so I praise You. I thank You, Lord. You are good. You are faithful. Lord, I didn't deserve the financial payout that I've received this year even when other people are going through really tough time economically. So, I praise You. Lord, I don't deserve these kinds of friends and fellowship that You've given me. So, Lord, I praise You.” And the examples go on and on. In every season of rejoicing, it is to be hallowed with praise. We will see that next time.
But James doesn't just say that here. He says that's to be the case not only in seasons of rejoicing, but in times of suffering—that we are to pray to the Lord in those seasons of suffering: “Lord, I never thought I'd bury my loved one so soon. And, so, I'm turning to You for strength, because I have none. Lord, I never thought I'd hold the lifeless body of my loved one in my own arms. So, I'm turning to You in prayer for grace, for strength. And You strengthen Yourself in the Lord Your God. Lord, I never thought I'd be among the jobless, but here I am, having been laid off, fired. Lord, I never knew that I would be in a troubled marriage, but here I am. I'm turning to You, O God, for strength. Lord, I had no idea that I'd be coming to You praying with a broken heart over children who have gone astray, gone away from the Lord and are living apart from His rule. But here I am before You—desperate. Lord, help. Lord, I never knew that I'd be in a broken home, but I'm turning to You, the Father of the fatherless.”
James is saying that, in every circumstance of life, we must go to the Lord. Even in the extremes of life—in cheerfulness, in unbearable sorrow—we are to go to the Lord in prayer. God wants us to talk to Him at all times. In trouble, He is our Comforter. In joy, He is the Giver of all joy. And, in going to Him in prayer, we hallow every pleasure and we sanctify every pain.
The whole of Christian life is to be lived in communion with God - the good and the bad. And that communion is to be expressed and manifested in prayer. In every circumstance, beloved, pray. The priority of prayer. He's saying, I'm not, I'm not only calling on you to endure, to weather the storms of life by looking ahead to the coming of the Lord, as He said earlier in this chapter. I'm calling on you to call on the Heavenly Father to help you in both the blessings of life—yes, not to forget Him—and in the storms of life—not to mistrust His goodness. "If anyone among you is suffering, then he must pray."
Let’s pray.
Simply put, we can put it this way: we could define breathing as transporting oxygen into the body and carbon dioxide out of the body - simply put. But you really spend no time thinking about this reality. We don't. Did you know the average person, the average adult, breathes between 12 to 15 times per minute or about 20,000 times a day? We normally breathe about 500 to 700 millimeters of air with each breath, amounting to 535 cubic feet each day. Most people only breathe through one nostril at a time—I found that fascinating. The nostril in use changes every 15 minutes to three hours, depending on the individual.
While we can vary the rate of our breathing based on exercise, based on choice, it's impossible for a healthy person to voluntarily stop breathing entirely. If we do not inhale over a period of time—and we all have done this, we tried it as kids, right? Or perhaps even as adults for various reasons—carbon dioxide builds up in our blood and then we experience what scientists refer to as overwhelming air hunger. This is a reflex that God has built within our bodies, and it's a reflex that's absolutely crucial to human life. We need it desperately. Because without breathing, the body's oxygen levels then drop. They fall and fall to dangerous levels within minutes, leading to permanent brain damage and ultimately to death.
It's not surprising, then, that breath has sometimes been used as a metaphor for life. We'll speak of someone's last breath, for example, because that is the most obvious sign that physical life has left the human body. And, beloved, I believe that breathing is a powerful illustration of a spiritual reality, and it is this: what breathing is to our physical bodies, praying is to our souls. Let me say that again. What breathing is to our physical bodies, praying is to our souls. We absolutely cannot survive without it. We can't.
The human body can survive for weeks without food, we can survive for days without water, but it can only survive for a few minutes without air. Same is true spiritually when it comes to praying. We absolutely cannot survive without it. And that's the message of James here.
First, he's going to tell us to pray in all circumstances—two divisions, simple divisions, big divisions, and we'll get into the subdivisions later. But if you were to split this passage into two big headings, it would be an exhortation to pray in all circumstances, and secondly, he's going to tell us to pray with all confidence—pray in all circumstances, and pray with all confidence. Very simple, very easy. All circumstances, all confidence.
Now we can put it differently. This passage breaks into two sections, and we can put the two sections this way: it would call us to the priority of prayer, and then to the power of prayer. It underscores the priority of prayer and the power of prayer. The priority of prayer in the life of a Christian—well, pray in all circumstances. The power of prayer—well, pray with all confidence that God uses it to accomplish great and mighty things according to His purposes. Verses 13 and 14, "Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him."
So, let's begin tonight by looking at, under the first heading, pray in all circumstances. And here specifically, James underscores three particular circumstances for us. The first, it's very obvious. Three circumstances in the Christian life. Number one, the first one is suffering. The second one is cheerfulness. And, number three, and this probably gives you a hint where we're going, but that's going to come not tonight, Lord willing—the third one is sinful sickness. So suffering, cheerfulness, and sinful sickness.
James begins by asking his readers, do any of you fall under any one of these three circumstances? That's what he does. "Is anyone among you suffering?” “Is anyone cheerful?” “Is anyone among you sick?" Well, I realize that that really covers quite a lot, doesn't it? This evening I can stand here and ask, are you happy? You say no. I pray you don't say no, but if you say no, then you're suffering. If I were to ask, are you suffering? You say no, then you must be happy. You see, you're going to fall into one of these circumstances, and for each of these circumstances, James says there's a kind of prayer that is appropriate—the kind of prayer that is the proper response, a response that you can make in prayer.
In other words, what James is doing here is he's saying something that Scripture affirms repeatedly: prayer should be woven into all of life, all circumstances. For the Christian, prayer is not something that we do five times a day facing east. Prayer is not something we do on Shabbat. Prayer is not something we recite out of a book like parrots. Prayer is something we weave into our everyday lives, every single day.
You're familiar with what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "pray without ceasing;”—pray without ceasing. Or Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." How about the Lord? Our Lord taught us “that at all times we ought to pray and not lose heart,”—Luke 18:1. And, Ephesians 6:18, "praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit."
You see, Christians are not a people who have just had an occasional routine, and at times we pray. Christians are to be a praying people. As you read the New Testament, there's just a strong sense, the strong sense that we're not just only going to set aside times. That is true, but it's going to be our breathing, our spiritual respiration: praying people.
And so that fits with this passage because James says, he says, ‘Listen, there are times when you're suffering, and there are times when you're cheerful, and there are times when you're sick, and in every circumstance that you find yourself, turn it into what? Prayer.’ Turn it into prayer. For the Christian, beloved, prayer is absolutely crucial, and prayer is especially important when we find ourselves in the middle of life's troubles, life's trials, life's difficulties.
You remember how James began this letter, don't you? He began this letter by making exactly that point. In fact, turn back to James chapter 1 and verse 5 as he talks about the issue of trials. Look at what he says in that context: "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God." And now, as he concludes his letter, James returns to this critical issue of prayer, and its importance in the midst of life's trials and difficulties—prayer.
By the way, this is common in many New Testament epistles—to conclude the letter with a call to prayer. Let me just show us just one example. If you were to turn to, for example, Romans 15, verse 30, Paul concludes by saying this: "Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." And, by the way, you see all the Trinity here—Jesus Christ, the Spirit, and God the Father. Well, here at the end of Romans, he appeals for them to pray for him.
In other books, as he concludes them, he simply appeals for them as believers to be, themselves, devoted to personal prayer as well. You see this, for example, at the end of Ephesians, at the end of the letter of Philippians, at the end of the letter to the Colossians, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 3. And, when you get to that non-Pauline epistle, Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews concludes with a call to prayer in Hebrews 13.
Now, why is it that prayer deserves such a high priority in the lives of believers? Why is it? It is because prayer is so crucial to our life as believers. It's crucial, like breathing air, like air is to our bodies. Prayer is to our Christian life what breathing is to our physical life. Martin Luther says, and I quote and I love this, "As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray." Nothing is more foundational to the Christian faith than the place and priority of prayer.
Now every Christian faces a variety of circumstances in life. Sometimes life will be full of blessings and peace and tranquility and rest on every side and everything will be going well, and other times, it will be full of challenging trials, pains, struggles. In every circumstance, we must respond as Christ Himself would have responded. We imitate Him, right? We imitate Him.
The God-Man was often going off to a secluded place to pray. Or, to put it in the terms that we've used throughout this series, you and I, in all circumstances—every circumstance, any circumstance—we need to respond with true faith. We need to respond with true faith. James addresses here how we will respond with true faith to these three different circumstances. Let us look together under that first heading: prayer in all circumstances, the priority of prayer.
The first circumstance would be the circumstance of suffering, verse 13. That's as far as we will go tonight: the circumstance of suffering. So, the first circumstance that James said that we need to respond rightly to with true faith is the circumstance of suffering. Verse 13, "Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray." Back in chapter 1, you remember, James says that the response of true faith to painful trials is what?—is that quiet contentment that is typical of Christian joy. Count it all joy. "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials." Here, he added to that another aspect of how the godly responds to suffering. "Is anyone among you suffering?", James asks. And I have a sneaking suspicion that the answer would have been yes, yes. In any church, anywhere, any time, in any place on the globe, there will be believers who are suffering—people who are going through great difficulty in life.
Now the Greek word that James uses here, under inspiration, for suffering, is ‘kakopathei’. ‘Kakopathei”—it's a compound word. It means to suffer evil, or suffer ill, or suffer badly. It's used two other times in the New Testament, both by Paul and both in 2 Timothy. He's used it primarily in that context there, referring to persecution for the faith. He spoke of the imprisonment and the suffering he was going through in Rome, and his final imprisonment using this word ‘kakopatheo’ translated there, for example in 2 Timothy 2:9, “endure hardship”. In 2 Timothy 4:5, he told Timothy to be ready to face the same kind of persecution in his own life.
Well, what Paul warned Timothy, James' readers were already experiencing. James 2:6–7, you remember they were being treated unfairly in the courts. They were being mocked and cursed for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in chapter 5 of James, he spoke of their wages being withheld and urged them as believers to have ‘hupomoné’—to bear under the persecution with patience and imitate the Old Testament prophets in their enduring kind of patience. In fact, the same basic word, ‘kakopatheo’, is used in here in verse 10, describing the suffering of the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
This word can relate to persecution for the faith, certainly, but we ought not to restrict it to persecution alone, exclusively. In fact, this word suffering, ‘kakopatheo’, is a general word that literally means, as I said, to suffer evil, to suffer ill. It has a sense of experiencing great difficulty. Alec Mottier, an excellent commentator in the book of James, he writes this, referring to this word: “it is any ill circumstance which may come upon us, any trial, anything of which we or an onlooking friend might say, ‘that's bad’.” So, anything that you and I would point to and say, ‘this is bad,’ is encompassed in this word ‘suffering’. It's trouble.
We could translate it in English this way: is anyone among you in trouble, in distress? It's very similar to how this Greek word is used. It includes everything, basically. It includes physical struggles, financial problems, marriage issues, pressures, setbacks at work, family struggles, persecution, loneliness, the death of a loved one, all the way to the daily pressures of work and family and marriage and life in the world here, in a broken world. So, let me ask you before we move on, beloved, do you find yourself tonight in trouble? Is your spirit crushed beneath a load of difficulty, hardship? Are the circumstances in your life right now pressuring you, weighing you down? Are you discouraged? Are you despondent? Are you worried about the future? Do you wonder how it is you're going to be able to accomplish all that is required of you, all that is on your plate, and you feel pulled from every direction? Have recent trials in your life stripped you of all the joy and spiritual stamina? If so, how should you respond?
Well, James tells you what you should do, what I should do. Verse 13, again, he says, "Is anyone among you suffering?" Yes, James, tell us. How do we respond? "Then he must pray." He must pray. And the Greek word here, translated "pray" in verse 13, is actually the most common Greek word in the New Testament for prayer, ‘proseuchesthō’. It's used 80 times to describe prayer, petition, asking God for help, for intervention.
Do you notice in this verse that James, by the way, doesn't tell us what to pray for? He doesn't tell us what the content of prayer ought to be. We may want to pray that the trial be removed. “God, take away this trouble, this trial that I'm facing. God, please take it away. Let this cup pass from me.” That's certainly appropriate to pray. Edmund Hiebert summarizes this well. He says, and I quote, "The present imperative”—that's the form of the verb, the continuous tense, ongoing— “The present imperative directs the sufferer to make it a practice to turn to God. Whenever he is in distress and in emotional tension, he is to turn to God. Instead of indulging in introspective self-pity or complaining loudly to others of his terrible situation, let him turn to God for refuge and strength." And then he concludes, "His prayer may not change the situation, but it can give the strength to bear it bravely as he submits himself to the divine providence."
As Hiebert notes, different people respond to suffering in different ways. Some respond with hysterics, others with an intense kind of self-reliance. “I'm going to change my situation my way. I want control.” Some complain and moan and lash out verbally at others, yet others withdraw into a private world of worry and anxiety and panic and preoccupation and self-pity. Are you a Christian who is, in any sense tonight, going through hardship, difficulty, distress, pressure? Are you in any way constricted, constrained? Are you being reproached? Are you struggling? Are you suffering? If so, James says, ‘You must pray.’ You must pray. You must pray. "Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray.”
When you are in a trial, when you are going through difficulty, turn upward to request grace and strength and wisdom and resolution. As I thought about this, isn't it interesting that as we go through trials, as we go through struggles, as we go through difficulties, as we go through suffering, there are basically three directions that we can turn. Only three, basically. We can turn inward and fret and worry. We can turn outward and hope that the circumstance will change or that somebody else will fix it for us. Or we can turn upward and cry out to the living God.
May I ask you, beloved, which one do you turn to first and which one do you turn to last? Which one do you turn to first? Which one do you turn to last? How often is the pattern inward, outward, then finally upward? James says, "Is anyone among you suffering?" Turn upward. Turn upward. It is a gift if you will allow your suffering and your trial to reflexively drive you upward to ask.
The text which so beautifully illustrates this, Psalm 50:15—a beautiful text. Psalm 50:15—this is God's invitation, beloved. This is God inviting you, inviting me. This is the sovereign God inviting His children: "Call upon Me in the day of distress. Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I shall rescue you, and you will glorify Me."
Charles Spurgeon calls this the “Robinson Crusoe text” because it comes up in Robinson Crusoe—a brilliant story—and Spurgeon noticed that and this is what he said about Psalm 50, verse 15. He said, and I quote, now follow closely, he said this, "First, here is your share: ‘Call upon Me in the day of trouble.’” That's your share.” “Secondly, here is God's share: ‘I will deliver thee. I will deliver thee.’ Again, you take a share—” he goes on, "you shall be delivered. And then again it is the Lord's turn—'Thou shalt glorify Me.’"
You see, here's a covenant that God, Himself, enters into with you who prays to Him and whom He helps. He says, ‘You shall have the deliverance, but I must have the glory. You shall pray, I will bless, and you shall honor My holy name.’ Here's a delightful partnership, isn't it? We obtain that which we greatly need, and God gets all the glory that is due unto His name.
But—there's a but—for that to happen, beloved, do you know what you have to do? You have to acknowledge that you are in trouble, that you are in trouble. You have to acknowledge that you need Him. You have to humble yourself. I have to humble myself to call upon Him. Ask Him to deliver you in ways that will glorify Him.
Over and over again, God invites us to call on Him to remove the trial. Psalm 107:6, “Then they cried out to Yahweh in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses." It's okay. It's okay to cry out to God to remove the trouble. Paul certainly prayed like that. You remember that passage that we've looked at again and again—2 Corinthians 12, the first few verses in that chapter. Paul gives us sort of an autobiographical account of what happened to him, as he had this opportunity to be caught up to the third heaven, have that glorious vision of the presence of God. And as a result of that, verse 7 says, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself!” “There was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!" And I'm not going to get into that. A lot of ink has been spilled on the issue—exactly what was Paul's thorn in the flesh.
You have this most common explanation: it's a physical ailment—perhaps his eyes. Because at the end of Galatians, he says, "See what large letters I have written you." He means by that physically large letters of the alphabet, because he has a problem with his eyes. So, we may surmise that maybe he had a serious physical problem, and that was his thorn in the flesh.
Others said, perhaps, it was really a person—maybe false teachers, there in Corinth, who were really making life very difficult for Paul, undermining his ministry and accusing him of all kinds of things.
Whether it is this or that, that is not the point at this point. But don't miss the point. Look at the next verse, verse 8: "Concerning this”—whatever it was—"I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me." Paul asked God to take it away. “Lord, deliver me from this.” It's okay to pray for God to take it away, and the Lord may choose to remove the trial. Or, just like here with Paul, He may choose to give you the same answer that He gave Paul. In verse 9, "He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’” It's okay to pray that God will remove the trouble. But God, in His own wise providence, may choose not to do that. And you and I have to trust Him to do what's right. Because our God always does what is right. He is good. He does what is right.
…that you and I face and encounter in life, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. And he says, if in the middle of those trials, he says, "if any of you lacks wisdom"—I don't know if you remember, but I'll say by way of reminder: the construction in the Greek text does not imply that there are some who lack wisdom and there are others who don't lack it, which is the impression that you get reading the English translation. Instead, the implication of the Greek text is, "if any of you lacks wisdom”—and you all do, then—"let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."
Now, why is it that we need wisdom in the midst of trials? This is what we ought to be praying for. This is what we ought to be praying about. What is it? What is it that we need wisdom for in the middle of trials? What is it? Well, without re-preaching the message—and I would really encourage us to refresh our memory concerning that—but what we need, what we need, the wisdom that we need in the midst of trials [is] we need the wisdom to see our trials as a source of joy because of the purpose of those trials—joy in the purpose of the trials.
That's exactly what He's admonished us to do back in verse 2, "Consider it all joy". And that doesn't come naturally. It doesn't come naturally to us to look at our difficulties and say, “Oh, I can rejoice in that.” We need God's wisdom to enable us to consider it all joy—not to be masochistic, to enjoy the trial. That's not what He's saying. But, rather, to see the outcome and rejoice in that, in the purpose of the trial. To see that, by going through this trial, we build spiritual strength and endurance, and it will draw us closer to the Lord and to behold a greater vision of God like Job did.
We also need wisdom in the midst of our trials to know how to respond in a godly way. And, so, James says, “Pray for wisdom.” Pray for wisdom. So, whenever we find ourselves in trouble of any kind, our first response should be what? To pray. We serve a God who can be trusted even in the dark. As you've heard it often quoted here, when we can't trace His hand in our circumstances, we can trust His heart. He's a faithful God. He's a good God. He's for us, not against us.
Now, beloved, I want us to see something now at this point. Turn to Acts 4. I want us to see that James is not just giving instruction kind of out of the blue here. He's taking what he himself had done in his life and then telling these believers to do the same in ours by way of extension. James—you remember, leader in the church of Jerusalem—not only he, but the whole church in Jerusalem had applied this very principle when they had faced trouble, suffering in the early years of the church. Acts 4 gives us an example of that.
Before the events of this chapter, the Jerusalem church had not experienced really any resistance from the religious rulers. However, following the healing of the lame man at the temple gate, in Acts Chapter 3, and then Peter's sermon calling for repentance, then the Jewish civil authorities—I mean the council, the Sanhedrin, you remember—they apprehended, they seized Peter and John, and they threatened them, commanding them not to preach any more sermons in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter and John's response—you remember what it was, right? They turned to them and said, “thank you very little,” and ignored the Sanhedrin's instructions and their threats, and returned to their brethren to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ again.
And when they went back to the church, what did they do in the midst of that persecution, in the midst of that suffering? Look at verse 23. Acts 4:23: "So when they”—Peter and John—"were released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them." Verse 24: "And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord." Now what they prayed for, in terms of petition, request, is summed up in verse 29. Here's the content: "Now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your slaves may speak Your word with all confidence." They said, God, notice what they're doing, notice what they're saying, notice their threats, and please deal with them and give us boldness all the more to proclaim the glorious gospel unashamedly.
You might remember a little bit later in the book of Acts—Acts 12—Peter was imprisoned, and really now, at that time, he was really imprisoned for execution time, this time. And what did the church do? They gathered. The church gathered, in the home of Mary the mother of John Mark, and they prayed. They turned upward.
James is telling the people to do in James 5 is not something new and different; it was something that he and his church had been doing throughout all the years of their church life. When trouble comes, you pray. When trouble comes, you pray. When trouble comes, you gather with other believers and you pray. It might be an organized prayer meeting like Wednesday night. It might be an informal, impromptu prayer time with friends at a coffee shop. It might be the solitary cry from your hurting, broken heart to God's listening ear. It's probably all of those at the same time or at any given time. But you pray. When suffering comes, true faith responds with prayer.
Prayer is the means that God has ordained for bringing change in us and at times in our circumstances. You see, you and I don't manipulate God with our prayers. He's not on the end of our prayer string and we have the privilege, then, to tell Him what to do. But, God chooses, in His sovereign wisdom, to work through our prayers.
And we can talk about that and we can explain that to a certain extent. But, you hold both side by side. In our finite mind, we cannot explain God's sovereignty and how our prayers work in that. There's a point where I just fall off the edge of the cliff in my answer and explanation, but the truth remains: God is sovereign, yet He chooses to work through our prayers. And that's enough for me. Spurgeon put it best when he said this: "Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence." Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence.
Prayer is the means that God has ordained for changing us, for strengthening us to face trials. Prayer turns on the tap of God's peace, turns on the tap of His power. And, as the approaching sirens chase away the thieves, so the terrors of a troubled heart is chased away when you trustingly lay your suffering at the feet of God in humble prayer. Worldly responses to suffering like complaining, self-pity, antagonism, self-reliance, worry, anger, anxiety—all of those thrown away, replaced by prayer. The Christ-like response to suffering is prayer, isn't it?
Isn't it prayer what Jesus did in the hour of His paramount suffering? In the shadow of the cross, the shadow of Golgotha, Gethsemane. He expressed His desires to the Father. He laid His heart out before His Father and then He consciously and submissively surrendered His desires to the plan of God: "Not My will, but Thine be done." Humble prayer. We…to imitate Christ. James says, then imitate Him at this very point: "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray." He must pray, in fact, the way he puts it.
As we bring this to an end this evening, James' message is very clear. In every circumstance of life, pray. Beloved, the whole of the Christian life is to be lived in communion with God. All of it. All of it. The good and the bad in the Christian life is to be lived in communion with God. The joyful and the heartbreaking in the Christian life is to be lived in communion with God, and that communion with God in good times, as we will see next time, Lord willing, and in bad times is to be manifested by prayer.
"Is anyone among you suffering?" What's the response? "Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful?"—as we will see. Are things going well? Has God blessed you beyond imagination? What's the proper response? "Let him sing songs." Let him sing praises. James' response to suffering is not simply to say, “Be patient. Hang on,” but rather to practically entrust yourself to the care of the Almighty God. And, there's only one way to do that. Pray. His point is then that prayer is always appropriate. It's always appropriate to pray.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones used to say, and I quote, "The one urge which should never be resisted is the urge to pray." A lot of urges in life need to be resisted, but the urge to pray should never be resisted, but rather cultivated. And that's what James is saying. Prayer is always, always appropriate. Pray when you're suffering. And, as we'll see, praise when you rejoice and sing when you're cheerful. In periods of trouble, in times of rejoicing, pray, praise, acknowledge that God is sufficient to help us, trusting Him, acknowledging Him as the Giver of every good gift. No matter what is happening in your life and my life, we should pray and we should give God thanks and praise Him.
James is calling on us in suffering to pray. In plenty—as we will see in detail next Lord's Day—to be cheerful, to rejoice, and sing and praise. Why? Because the Christian life is to be consecrated by prayer to God so that every pleasure is hallowed and every pain is sanctified. We're to so live the Christian life that every pleasure is made holy by our acknowledging that it comes from the hand of our loving, merciful, gracious, benevolent Heavenly Father.
“Lord, Lord, I don't deserve this. Thank You for this relationship. Thank You for these siblings. Thank You for my parents. Thank You for my brothers and sisters. Lord, You've given me all of this. I praise You, Lord. I don't deserve this and this and that and the other. Lord, I don't deserve this job You've given me. I love it and so I praise You. I thank You, Lord. You are good. You are faithful. Lord, I didn't deserve the financial payout that I've received this year even when other people are going through really tough time economically. So, I praise You. Lord, I don't deserve these kinds of friends and fellowship that You've given me. So, Lord, I praise You.” And the examples go on and on. In every season of rejoicing, it is to be hallowed with praise. We will see that next time.
But James doesn't just say that here. He says that's to be the case not only in seasons of rejoicing, but in times of suffering—that we are to pray to the Lord in those seasons of suffering: “Lord, I never thought I'd bury my loved one so soon. And, so, I'm turning to You for strength, because I have none. Lord, I never thought I'd hold the lifeless body of my loved one in my own arms. So, I'm turning to You in prayer for grace, for strength. And You strengthen Yourself in the Lord Your God. Lord, I never thought I'd be among the jobless, but here I am, having been laid off, fired. Lord, I never knew that I would be in a troubled marriage, but here I am. I'm turning to You, O God, for strength. Lord, I had no idea that I'd be coming to You praying with a broken heart over children who have gone astray, gone away from the Lord and are living apart from His rule. But here I am before You—desperate. Lord, help. Lord, I never knew that I'd be in a broken home, but I'm turning to You, the Father of the fatherless.”
James is saying that, in every circumstance of life, we must go to the Lord. Even in the extremes of life—in cheerfulness, in unbearable sorrow—we are to go to the Lord in prayer. God wants us to talk to Him at all times. In trouble, He is our Comforter. In joy, He is the Giver of all joy. And, in going to Him in prayer, we hallow every pleasure and we sanctify every pain.
The whole of Christian life is to be lived in communion with God - the good and the bad. And that communion is to be expressed and manifested in prayer. In every circumstance, beloved, pray. The priority of prayer. He's saying, I'm not, I'm not only calling on you to endure, to weather the storms of life by looking ahead to the coming of the Lord, as He said earlier in this chapter. I'm calling on you to call on the Heavenly Father to help you in both the blessings of life—yes, not to forget Him—and in the storms of life—not to mistrust His goodness. "If anyone among you is suffering, then he must pray."
Let’s pray.
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