The Priority and Power of Prayer (II)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
Lightning is part of life, isn't it? Lightning. Especially summertime. Lightning is really an amazing thing because there's nothing really normal or arbitrary or average about lightning. It can be frightening. You may or may not know that when lightning strikes, some lightning bolts heat the air up around them to around—are you waiting for this—27,000 degrees Celsius, which is at least three times the temperature of the surface of the sun. Imagine. Imagine. And they say there's no God.
Around 100 million electrical volts are included in that one bolt. What happens when we have lightning, and because you see it, you see the strike from top to bottom, and you think, well, that's what lightning is. In fact, lightning is more than one movement. The lightning strike actually occurs because there's a charge that builds up at the bottom part of the cloud, and it's a negative charge that builds up. But what really causes the lightning is that there is a positive charge that builds up down below on the ground. And as this positive charge of this energy is building up in the ground, and there's the negative energy in the cloud, there's this electric potential difference.
As long as the air is dry, you have a non-conductor, and nothing is going to happen. No lightning is going to strike. But as soon as the air gets more and more moist, eventually there's now, what? A conductor. And from this huge potential difference that's growing up in the cloud on top, and this potential difference down at the bottom, when the air gets moist, and finally the lightning will begin going down in 50-meter jagged steps, of course at the speed of light, and it comes down in a huge swoop that can cause massive damage.
I think in that wonderful illustration that we see so beautifully every summer, we have an illustration in nature on something that happens in life. We have God's glorious grace like that cloud, like that potential energy in the cloud, wanting to glorify itself. We have God wanting to show Himself, use His power, bring mercy, bring ‘chesed’ ( חֶסֶד), loving kindness, bring love. And you think of that as the negative charge building up in the cloud. But then you have us here, God's children, here on earth, and we are needy. Desperately needy. We are in distress. We are weak. We are suffering. We are sheep needing direction. We are unwise needing wisdom. We are suffering needing comfort.
And then here we are, and our dire need is like the positive charge building up on the earth, and so you have God desiring to glorify Himself as Deliverer, as our Strength, as our Helper, and you have us needing so much grace from God. What then is the thing that causes the lightning to strike? The lightning strike of grace from Heaven to earth. I want to submit to us this evening that that strange conductor from Heaven to earth is this thing called prayer. Prayer.
It is interesting, as you read the New Testament, whenever the writers come to the end of their epistle, they begin to exhort their readers to what? Pray. It's as if Paul, James, Peter, and John, they think you're going to pray, they're expecting you to pray, they're trusting that you're going to pray, but they just say, look, in case you aren't, in case you've forgotten, you need to be praying. All the writers of the New Testament do that. They say you need this lightning bolt in your life. "Pray without ceasing." "Devote yourselves to prayer." "Pray for us that we may have boldness." “Pray”. “Pray for us”.
Now, Christians sing about prayer. Christians write about prayer. Christians talk about prayer. Christians read about prayer. But too often, Christians don't pray as we ought to. And so James has one of the most practical, compelling ways of exhorting us to pray here in this section. If you're a person who says, I wish I prayed more, I wish I prayed better, then James has so much pastoral counsel for you and for me.
And I think almost every Christian, if we had to sit ourselves down and think, well, what's your prayer life like? Would you like it to be better? I've never met a Christian who said, well, oh, it's just great. My prayer life is just great. I need nothing, no improvement. It's perfect. Almost every Christian says, yes, I need help. I need guidance to pray better. So James is going to do that here. He's going to teach us how to better be one of those lightning conductors, as it were, how to better be that moist air from which grace comes down to meet our needs.
And he's going to do it in two very simple ways. First, he's going to tell us to pray in all circumstances. All circumstances. And secondly, he's going to tell us to pray with all confidence. It's very simple. Simple two general headings. 1. Pray in all circumstances. 2. Pray with all confidence. All circumstances, all confidence. All circumstances, all confidence.
Or we could put it this way, as we did last Lord's Day. The first part in this section we can call the priority of prayer. And then the second part, the power of prayer. The priority of prayer in the life of the Christian, that is, pray in all circumstances. The power of prayer is, pray with all confidence. That God uses it to accomplish great and mighty things.
"Is anyone among you suffering?" – verse 13, – "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." Pray in all circumstances.
We began to look at this passage to consider this portion under the first heading: pray in all circumstances. And as we saw last time, James underscores three circumstances of the Christian life. The first is suffering. The second is cheerfulness. And the third one we call sinful sickness. So suffering, cheerfulness, and then sickness—sinful sickness particularly.
The first circumstance we looked at last Lord's Day, it is the circumstance of suffering, and that is the first part of verse 13. The first circumstance that James said that we need to respond rightly to with true faith here is the circumstance of suffering. "Is anyone among you suffering?" – He says, – “then he must pray”. When you are in a trial, when you are going through a difficulty, turn upward. Turn upward to request grace and strength and wisdom and resolution and determination from Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that lives in us.
And as we go through trials, as we go through struggles, there are basically, as you remember, I trust, three directions we could turn. We could turn inward and fret and worry and become anxious and push the panic button and get angry. Or we could turn outward and hope that the circumstances will change. Maybe somebody, some other human being can help us. We seek the arm of human flesh. Or we could turn upward. And sadly, more often than not, the pattern is inward, outward, and then when we're finally stuck, we turn upward. And James says, beloved, this ought not be so. "Is anyone among you suffering?" He says, turn upward right away. Turn to God. Cry out to Him.
Now there's a second circumstance as well here in verse 13, so we'll pick up where we left off that calls for prayer. The latter part of the verse: "Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises." So the second circumstance is the circumstance of cheerfulness. Cheerfulness. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the first one, right? Christians must be prepared to face trials in a godly manner. We must do that, and we studied that, right? James 1 and even last Lord's Day: If anyone's suffering, well, must pray.
We must also be prepared to face the trial—follow closely—the test of peace and good in a godly manner. Let me say that again. We must also be prepared to face the trial, the test of peace and good, in a Godly manner. We don't usually think of peace and things going really well in our lives as a trial or as a test. But we often fail that trial more significantly than we fail the trial of suffering. Because when things get really tough, there's nowhere else to go but God. When you hit rock bottom, the only way is to look what? Up.
But when things are going fine and everything is great—smooth sailing—then God can stay on the shelf, right? And I can manage life just fine on my own. James says here, check yourself. Check yourself. If you're suffering, pray. If you're cheerful, sing praises. So cheerfulness is the second set of circumstances. By the way, this word is obviously the opposite of anger and wrath. It describes a pleasant, content state of mind. To be cheerful means to have a buoyant, exuberant outlook on life.
It's the way you feel when you get a raise. It's the way you feel when she says “yes”. It's that long-awaited holiday and it's finally come and you're exhausted and here it is. You've waited for it all throughout the year. It's the polar opposite of suffering in the first part of the verse. "Is anyone cheerful?" ‘Euthymeo’ (εὐθυμέω) is the Greek word translated cheerful. Literally, it means to be in good heart or soul. To be in good heart, good cheer, good soul. It's only used four other times in the New Testament. Three of those times, by the way, occur in Acts 27. Actually, it's very fascinating that three of the four times occur in Acts 27. It's actually telling. It's very telling.
Paul, in Acts 27, is urging those men who are on that ship that's about to go down and shipwreck with him, that's been caught in a storm for two weeks. He urges them to be ‘euthymeo’ (εὐθυμέω), cheerful. What do you mean cheerful? We're being shipwrecked! We're going to die! He says, be cheerful. So being cheerful—and this is really important for us to understand—is not necessarily describing happy circumstances. It isn't. The circumstances on board that ship in Acts 27 were not happy circumstances, but Paul says, even in the midst of that, we can be filled with joy. It's that deep sense of joy in spite of the circumstances. You can be cheerful in this sense when everything is going wonderfully, and you can also be cheerful when everything is difficult. In trouble. May I ask you this evening, are you cheerful today? Is your perspective about your life, whatever your circumstances, one of deep, inner joy?
Then here's how you respond. Look at verse 13. What is a Godly response then of a cheerful saint? He is, verse 13, to sing praises. This is God's Word. I'm simply the messenger. To sing praises. Here's the Christian in the opposite state of suffering. He's in a place of joy, a place of gladness, a place of good spirits, and he's got a spring in his step, whatever it is. James says, you still must pray.
It's a different kind of prayer. What prayer is this? Well, what does he say? He is to sing praises. From the word ‘psalletō (ψάλλω (psalló)) from which we get the word psalms. Literally, you could translate it “psalming”. Psalming. Which can often mean singing psalms. But the word in its original root means strumming. To pluck a stringed instrument. It's the word that would describe what David did on the harp as he made his psalms of praise to Yahweh, playing on a stringed instrument. He was psalming.
The word then came to mean singing and being accompanied by a stringed instrument and ultimately came to refer simply to singing praises to God. It doesn't describe a particular kind of music. In other words, God is not telling us here we have to sing one of the psalms. That's not what He's saying. "Turn to the psalms and sing it." You can do that. That's part of it, but it's not exclusively that. Instead, it describes any song of praise to God. Any song of adoration to God. This is to be our response.
And what is the idea? The idea is this: make music and sing your praise and your thanksgiving to God. Make musical prayer and thanksgiving to God when you're cheerful. You realize, beloved—I trust—you realize that every Lord's Day, every Sunday, when we sing these hymns, when we sing the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, we are praying. We're praying. You do realize that, as we sing those songs in worship, in adoration, in praise, we're not only praising and worshiping, but we're also praying.
Those are musical prayers. Those are musical, worshipful prayers. Many of our songs and hymns address God in the second person: “You”. They are directly directed to God. Even when we're singing about Him, we're still directing it to Him.
James says the very best thing to do when your heart is full, when your heart is cheerful, is to sing, play, hum musical prayers to God in worship, in adoration. I think that's one of the best motivations, really, one of them, for memorizing hymns and songs of praise, because sometimes you're going to find yourself somewhere, and God is going to bless you with joy, bless you with lightness of spirit. You'll be reflecting on a Scripture illuminated to you. You'll see an answer to prayer, and you'll see the splendor of creation perhaps somewhere around you as you're driving. You'll be marveling at the providence of God, and the Holy Spirit will bring out joy in your heart. And at that point, what do you want to do? At that point, the prayer should go up, and the greatest and highest prayers are those musical prayers. "Amazing love! How can it be?" "Great is Thy faithfulness, O God!" "Take the world. Give me Jesus."
You know, when we worship, we really need three things. We need, firstly, truth about God. Truth about God. We saw this this morning. And then secondly, we need the right affection toward that truth. But then thirdly, you need a vehicle to express that affection, don't you?
So you're getting truth about God in your heart, and the affection of love and joy is springing up, is just overflowing, and then you need a vehicle. Well, how do I express it? Haven't you ever felt that? You have this joy, this joy unspeakable, just bubbling in your heart, but you just can't articulate it. You just can't form it. You just can't shape it. You don't know what to do with it. And when you can't shape it like that, you almost feel frustrated. I wish I could put it into words, what I'm feeling. I just want to express it.
Well, that's what the best hymns songs do, and that's why it would be edifying to memorize hymns, to sing those hymns in our minds, and well-crafted hymns with rich theological truth. "My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more." "Therefore now, there's no condemnation." So when you're feeling joyful, take that joy and sing to God. Turn your cheerfulness into adoration and thanksgiving.
Do you find yourself this evening genuinely filled with the joy, with a deep sense of delight, and satisfaction in God's goodness to you, and the life that is given to you? Then your response should be to flood over with praise to God. Praise. Again, singing praises is simply another form of prayer. Praise, if it's done biblically correctly, it's another form of prayer to God. It's the overflow of our hearts speaking to God and reciting His goodness and His grace to us.
Scripture constantly resounds with the praises of God's people because of the joy that's within their hearts. It just wells up, bubbles out, and it just overflows. Let me show you a couple of examples. Turn with me back to Psalm 95. Psalm 95, a sister psalm of Psalm 100. In Psalm 95:1, I love this; here it is. It's another example. You find this resounding praise, God's people resounding with praise because of the joy that is within their heart. Look at verse 1: "Oh come, let us sing for joy to Yahweh, Let us make a loud shout to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us make a loud shout to Him with songs of praise. For Yahweh is a great God And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks and the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land." “Come”, – verse 6, –"let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before Yahweh, our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand." We are to let the overflow of our joy turn into praise to our God.
And we see this in the New Testament as well. Turn with me for a moment to Luke 24. Luke 24. Luke records the ascension of our Lord. In verse 50, he says this: "And He,” – Christ, – “led them out as far as Bethany, lifting up His hands, He blessed them. And it happened that while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven." And how do you respond in the midst of that? How do you respond in the midst of that? Verse 52: "And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with” – what? – “great joy”. Great joy. Worship. Joy. So, what do you do if you're filled with joy? What do you do if you're cheerful? Look at how the disciples respond in verse 53: "and they were continually in the temple blessing God." Do you see that? This is to be the expression of our hearts.
You see it again in Ephesians chapter 5 in that great passage about being filled with the Spirit. We're told in verse 18, "do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." Be controlled, permeated with the Spirit. And how does that express itself? Well, verse 19 tells us how it expresses itself: "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord."
And you remember very well the parallel passage, Colossians 3:16, as explained before many times. You remember that being filled with the Spirit is identical to letting the Word of Christ dwell richly within you. The same thing—to be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Word of God. To be controlled by the Word of God is to be filled with the Spirit. And how does that express itself? Colossians 3:16: "with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to the Lord." This is to be our response, beloved. Are you in trouble this evening? James says, then you're to pray. But if, as you sit here tonight, you could say that your life and your perspective about your life, whatever your circumstances may be, is one of a deep sense of inner joy, then you are to respond by singing praises to God—a different kind of prayer to God Himself. You're still turning upward. You’re still turning upward.
Back to our text, James 5. And I want us to see the big picture here. There's so much for us, by the way, here. I want us to see the big picture. Let's step back and look at the big picture of what James is telling us with these two questions: Is anyone suffering? Is anyone cheerful? Is anyone suffering? Is anyone cheerful, right? James intends to encompass every season and circumstance of life—to put bookends, if you will, on all of life in all circumstances. And he uses those two as bookends and everything in between. Every experience that you and I can encounter in life is included in verse 13. Everyone. Whatever it is that you're going through right now, it's included.
Alec Motyer, in his commentary, writes this. He says, "Here then, in two words—the words suffering and cheerful—are all life's experiences, and each of them in turn can so easily be the occasion of spiritual upset." Have you ever thought about that? Listen to what He says. “Trouble can give rise to an attitude of surly rebellion against God and the abandonment of spiritual practices.”
Ever tempted in the midst of a trial, trouble, to turn in anger on God? To question the goodness of God? To push back against the providence of God? "God, why are You doing this to me? God, I don't understand. It's not fair. Why are You doing this to my family?" And to actually fail to practice, as He says here—abandoned spiritual practices for a time—to ignore the Word of God, to ignore prayer, to ignore the corporate gathering for worship. Trouble can lead us there.
Motyer goes on to say, ”Equally, times of ease and affluence beget complacency, laziness, and the assumption that we are able of ourselves to cope with life, and God is forgotten”. You see, just as trouble can lead us into rebellion, ease can lead us into forgetfulness. Watch out. Be on your guard. When success puts you in a cheerful mood, it's easy to leave God behind.
We know what happened to David walking on the rooftop. As long as the sun is shining, we don't feel really a strong need for God, who is light. We embrace the blessing, but perhaps not the Blesser. Whether we find ourselves in trouble or in triumph and everything in between, James says we are to pray. We are to remember God. We are to turn upward. So every circumstance is included—every circumstance of life is included in verse 13.
But there's more in verse 13. Look again at the word "cheerful." You see ‘euthymeo’ (εὐθυμέω). Notice the word "cheerful." Notice with me this word ‘euthymeo’ (εὐθυμέω) —cheerful—does not describe a circumstance, but rather our response to our circumstances. This is key. It describes our response to our circumstances. In other words, it describes our emotions. What James wants us to understand is that not only should every circumstance we face drive us to God, but our emotional response to our circumstances—whatever that may be—should also drive us to God. You see, emotion is a God-given gift. It's part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Biblical language tells us that God has emotions of various kinds.
Now, we've got to be careful here with that. It's important that we think about this accurately, biblically. All the biblical descriptions of emotion and God are what theologians call anthropopathic. That means that God doesn't experience emotions in exactly the same way that you and I do. Our emotions are physical responses to external stimuli. They are physical responses to something we perceive, or something we think, or something we believe. For example, you're driving down the highway and God forbid on your way home from church, and you have a near accident. And what emotion do you experience? Fear. Fear. Now why? I mean, you didn't have an accident. Why would you experience fear? It's because your perception to the exterior, external stimuli of that near accident causes your body to respond with fear, because that's how you perceive the situation.
But God isn't like that. God doesn't react, because nothing surprises God, right? He knows the end from the beginning. So when emotions are given or prescribed to God in the Scripture, we're simply being told that to help us understand something that's true about God, but it's not exactly like our emotions. But nevertheless, listen carefully: God doesn't react, but He describes Himself as experiencing emotions. He feels them. That means there's something in God which can best be explained by comparing it to our emotions. We are made in the image of God, and our God-given emotions—whatever… They are—should always—drive us to God. Always. Always. Whatever emotion it is that you're experiencing right now, that is to be an impetus to go to God, whether it's in prayer or whether it is in praise and adoration to God.
If you want to see what that looks like in real life, I encourage you to study, meditate on the Psalms, because the book of the Psalms serves as, as G. Campbell Morgan calls it, “The book in which the emotions of the human soul find expression—the book in which the emotions of the human soul find expression.” Another author says that “the Psalms are a mirror into which one can peer and see himself and his emotions reflected”. So Psalms provide us with a divinely intended record and a pattern of a man expressing himself to God—a pattern, if you will, of prayer, praise, based on not only all of the different experiences of life, but also based on our different emotional reaction to all of the circumstances of life.
Let me show us a couple of examples from the life of David—life and pen of David under inspiration. And this is really helpful for us at this point. Turn back with me to Psalm 3, and I want us to see how Psalms are intended to show us that whatever emotion we're facing, whatever experiences cause that emotion, all of that, beloved, all of it is to drive us to God; to turn upward.
Psalm 3, the title says it's "A Psalm of David. When he fled from Absalom his son." And I want you for a moment to try to put yourself in David's shoes, or David's sandals at this moment, the moment that the Psalm was written, in the circumstances that led up to it. Think about this for a moment: is there anything worse for a king than a rebellion against his kingship? It's hard to imagine anything getting much worse than that. And yet, it was worse for David. Why? Because the rebellion came from his own son, Absalom.
David's on the run. He's lost his throne. He's lost his kingdom. And it's because of his son. Notice—notice his response in verse 1: “O Yahweh, how my adversaries have become many! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” But You, O Yahweh, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head. I was calling to Yahweh with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for Yahweh sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who all around have set themselves against me. Arise, O Yahweh; save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked.
Salvation belongs to Yahweh; Your blessing be upon Your people!"
I mean, right here you see David in the wide range of his emotions through this experience, the circumstance, everything from the despondency and despair that come with being attacked by your own son and having people in your kingdom rally to him, and to the hope that God will act on his behalf. But all of it—all of it—drove him where? Upward. To God.
Fast forward to Psalm 6. You have a prayer for mercy in time of trouble. Again, you see the heart of David poured out before God. This is a pattern for us, beloved. This is how we are to pour out our hearts before God. “O Yahweh, do not reprove me in Your anger, Nor discipline me in Your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, for I am pining away; Heal me, O Yahweh, for my bones are dismayed. And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O Yahweh—how long? Return, O Yahweh, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. For there's no remembrance of You in death; In Sheol, who will give You thanks? I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed swim, I flood my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted away with grief; It has become old because of all my adversaries.”
What I want you to see, beloved, is that when David found himself in trouble, where did he turn? Where did he turn? He said when he found himself discouraged, and the emotion—the emotion of absolute, utter despondency and discouragement—came upon him, where did he go? He turned to Yahweh. He went to the Lord.
But you see, the opposite is true as well. Turn to Psalm 9, just a few pages over. David writes in Psalm 9, "I will give thanks to Yahweh with all my heart; I will recount all Your wondrous deeds. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High." And he goes on through a song to recite the goodness, the greatness of God caring for him—a totally different tone, an emotional tone in totally different circumstances.
Psalm 30, one last song. You see again the sense of joy overflowing in praise. It's a song of dedication of the house, and it's written, "I will exalt You, O Yahweh, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my enemies be glad over me. O Yahweh, my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me. O Yahweh, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. Sing praise to Yahweh, you His holy ones, And give thanks for the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning."
You see how David, whatever the circumstances in his life—whatever his own emotional response to that circumstance—he let it drive him to God, not away from God. He's open and honest about his emotions. But here's the key, beloved: they push him to his God, not away from God. He turns to God. He turns to God.
And James is telling us exactly the same thing. He's saying whatever your circumstances are—whatever your circumstances, whatever season of life we may be in, and whatever our perspective or emotions about those circumstances may be—we are to turn upward. Turn to God in prayer. Turn to Him and cry out to Him. Pour out your heart before Him. Trust in Him at all times you people; the Psalmist says – “pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us."
This is reminiscent of Paul's constant call to pray always. Ephesians 6:18, “pray at all times." Pray at all times—suffering, cheerful, everything in between. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray without ceasing."
Jesus Himself, our Lord, taught us to make this kind of prayer a priority. You remember in Luke 18, He teaches a parable to communicate the importance of prayer. And in verse 1, "Now He was telling them a parable," – and here was its purpose – "to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart." Keep praying. Keep praying. Keep praying. Keep turning upward. Whatever your circumstances may be, don't lose heart. Pour out your heart to God. And here's the parable: “In a certain city there was a certain judge who did not fear God, did not respect men”. In other words, this guy didn't care, didn't care a bit. Didn't care about justice. Didn't care about the people he was supposedly serving. He only cared about himself. “Now there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him and saying, " "Give me justice from my opponent." And for a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, "Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow is bothering me, I will give her justice, lest by continually coming she wears me out."”
And the Lord said—and don't miss the point—hear what the unjust judge said. “Now, will God not bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?" Here's the point, the moral of the story: God is nothing—absolutely nothing—like that unrighteous judge. And if that unrighteous judge gave in to the persistence of that woman simply to get her off his back, how much more eager is our loving Father willing to respond to us, His children?
So turn to Him. Turn upward in the midst of your trouble. Turn to Him when you're cheerful. Turn to Him. And we ought to always pray and not lose heart. And let us not miss this, the main point of verse 13—it is that every circumstance and every emotion is intended to drive us to God. Every circumstance and every emotion is intended to drive us to God.
As John Calvin said of this passage, "James means there is no time in which God does not invite us to Himself." I love that—simple but yet salient. James means there's no time in which God does not invite us to Himself. There's no time, there's no circumstance, there's nothing you might be feeling that would cause God not to invite you to Himself. "Call on Me in the day of distress and I will rescue you, and you will glorify Me."
Alec Motyer writes again, "Our whole life should be so angled towards God that whatever strikes upon us, whether sorrow or joy, should be deflected upwards at once into His presence." He goes on to say, "In particular, this is an exercise in glad acceptance of the will of God." Those last words are very, very critical. In particular, this is an exercise in glad acceptance of the will of God.
This is the common denominator—that is, accepting God's will is the common denominator in prayer and praise. In praise, we say to Him, "God, Your will is good, acceptable, and perfect. This is what You've done for me, and I rejoice in it. I bless Your holy name. Your will is good, acceptable, and perfect." And in time of trouble, we pray and ask God to help us and attempt—however poorly we may succeed—to imitate the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus in saying, "Not My will, let Yours be done, Lord. Your will."
That is exactly what James is saying here in James 5:13. As John Blanchard describes it this way, "We have a God for all seasons. If you find the world on top of you, pray. And if you find yourself on top of the world, then praise." I love that. If you find the world on top of you, then pray. If you find yourself on top of the world, then praise.
And why is this important? Because when we pray to God in our trouble—follow closely—when we pray to God in our trouble, in our affliction, our suffering, in our difficulty, when we pray to God in our trouble, we acknowledge His sovereign power to meet all our needs. His grace is sufficient. When we pray in the middle of trouble and say, "God, I need Your help." We're saying, "God, everything I need in the midst of this affliction, in the midst of this difficulty, is found in You and nowhere else."
And when we, in the midst of our joy, God, say in praise, singing in praise, we acknowledge that God, in His sovereign goodness, has brought those circumstances into our lives. We say, "God, the reason I am cheerful, the reason I am in joy, I am in these great circumstances, the reason that my heart can be filled with joy even in these difficult circumstances is because of You, God."
On the other hand, when we don't pray, we're revealing to ourselves and to everyone around us that those things are not true. You see, when we pray and when we praise, we acknowledge God as our all-sufficiency. When we pray and when we praise, we acknowledge God as our all-sufficiency. But when we don't, we are acknowledging that we don't believe He is our sufficiency.
If you find yourself in trouble and you're not praying, you know what you're saying? What you're saying is this: "God, what I really need in this situation isn't coming from You, and You can't help me." That's what you're saying. Or if we find ourselves in the midst of joy—a deep sense of inner peace and joy of the circumstances in which we find ourselves and/or through the circumstance in which we find ourselves—and we don't praise God, then what we're saying is this: "God, You had nothing to do with this joyful circumstance. You had nothing to do with this blessing."
You see, as we contemplate the priority of prayer, don't forget the theme of James' letter. Remember what it is: it is a test of what? Living faith. Remember, there's a living faith that is a saving faith, and there's a dead faith that's like that of the demons that will not save. A simple grasp of the facts about Jesus Christ will not bring salvation. James taught us this again and again, and one of the tests of the reality of our faith is whether or not we continually find ourselves resorting to God in prayer and praise.
A commentator, Edmond Hiebert, writes, "Christian faith finds its center and power in a vital relationship with God through prayer in all the experiences of life." You see, the habit of prayer should be, and in fact is, one of the most profound marks of genuine Christian faith.
And so I close by asking these questions: is your faith living or is it dead? Take a look at your prayer. Take a look at your praise. James not only understood this, but he practiced it. I find this really fascinating. Listen to the early church father Eusebius quoting an ancient tradition. He wrote this of James, "James' knees grew hard like camels because of his constant worship of God in prayer." He not only taught it, but he lived it. May God give us a commitment to the priority of prayer just like James.
Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for this portion of Your Word. And thank You, thank You for the reminder that all of life, that every single circumstance that we face, and that every emotional response that we have to every circumstance that we face, are merely catalysts to drive us back to You and to Your great heart—to Your goodness, to Your benevolence, to Your care, to Your love, to Your loving-kindness. Father, teach us as believers to live like that, to think like that. Lord, may every emotion that we experience this week drive us to you Oh Lord. Oh Lord, may every circumstance in which we find ourselves—whether it is suffering or cheerfulness—may we find ourselves driven back to You. May every circumstance in which we find ourselves drive us back to You, Oh Lord. And Father, tonight I pray for the person who may be here tonight who has to honestly say that they failed the test of living faith because prayer is such a foreign thing to their heart and life. Oh Lord. Oh Lord, I pray that You would help them to see, no matter what their claim of Christ may be, but they may in fact have a dead faith. It's not saving faith. May they tonight awaken to new life, life that beats with a new heart after Yours. Draw them to You. And I pray for your children who are particularly going through trying and difficult painful circumstances as they turn to You upward, minister to them we pray. And we ask in Jesus’ name and for His sake.
Amen
Around 100 million electrical volts are included in that one bolt. What happens when we have lightning, and because you see it, you see the strike from top to bottom, and you think, well, that's what lightning is. In fact, lightning is more than one movement. The lightning strike actually occurs because there's a charge that builds up at the bottom part of the cloud, and it's a negative charge that builds up. But what really causes the lightning is that there is a positive charge that builds up down below on the ground. And as this positive charge of this energy is building up in the ground, and there's the negative energy in the cloud, there's this electric potential difference.
As long as the air is dry, you have a non-conductor, and nothing is going to happen. No lightning is going to strike. But as soon as the air gets more and more moist, eventually there's now, what? A conductor. And from this huge potential difference that's growing up in the cloud on top, and this potential difference down at the bottom, when the air gets moist, and finally the lightning will begin going down in 50-meter jagged steps, of course at the speed of light, and it comes down in a huge swoop that can cause massive damage.
I think in that wonderful illustration that we see so beautifully every summer, we have an illustration in nature on something that happens in life. We have God's glorious grace like that cloud, like that potential energy in the cloud, wanting to glorify itself. We have God wanting to show Himself, use His power, bring mercy, bring ‘chesed’ ( חֶסֶד), loving kindness, bring love. And you think of that as the negative charge building up in the cloud. But then you have us here, God's children, here on earth, and we are needy. Desperately needy. We are in distress. We are weak. We are suffering. We are sheep needing direction. We are unwise needing wisdom. We are suffering needing comfort.
And then here we are, and our dire need is like the positive charge building up on the earth, and so you have God desiring to glorify Himself as Deliverer, as our Strength, as our Helper, and you have us needing so much grace from God. What then is the thing that causes the lightning to strike? The lightning strike of grace from Heaven to earth. I want to submit to us this evening that that strange conductor from Heaven to earth is this thing called prayer. Prayer.
It is interesting, as you read the New Testament, whenever the writers come to the end of their epistle, they begin to exhort their readers to what? Pray. It's as if Paul, James, Peter, and John, they think you're going to pray, they're expecting you to pray, they're trusting that you're going to pray, but they just say, look, in case you aren't, in case you've forgotten, you need to be praying. All the writers of the New Testament do that. They say you need this lightning bolt in your life. "Pray without ceasing." "Devote yourselves to prayer." "Pray for us that we may have boldness." “Pray”. “Pray for us”.
Now, Christians sing about prayer. Christians write about prayer. Christians talk about prayer. Christians read about prayer. But too often, Christians don't pray as we ought to. And so James has one of the most practical, compelling ways of exhorting us to pray here in this section. If you're a person who says, I wish I prayed more, I wish I prayed better, then James has so much pastoral counsel for you and for me.
And I think almost every Christian, if we had to sit ourselves down and think, well, what's your prayer life like? Would you like it to be better? I've never met a Christian who said, well, oh, it's just great. My prayer life is just great. I need nothing, no improvement. It's perfect. Almost every Christian says, yes, I need help. I need guidance to pray better. So James is going to do that here. He's going to teach us how to better be one of those lightning conductors, as it were, how to better be that moist air from which grace comes down to meet our needs.
And he's going to do it in two very simple ways. First, he's going to tell us to pray in all circumstances. All circumstances. And secondly, he's going to tell us to pray with all confidence. It's very simple. Simple two general headings. 1. Pray in all circumstances. 2. Pray with all confidence. All circumstances, all confidence. All circumstances, all confidence.
Or we could put it this way, as we did last Lord's Day. The first part in this section we can call the priority of prayer. And then the second part, the power of prayer. The priority of prayer in the life of the Christian, that is, pray in all circumstances. The power of prayer is, pray with all confidence. That God uses it to accomplish great and mighty things.
"Is anyone among you suffering?" – verse 13, – "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." Pray in all circumstances.
We began to look at this passage to consider this portion under the first heading: pray in all circumstances. And as we saw last time, James underscores three circumstances of the Christian life. The first is suffering. The second is cheerfulness. And the third one we call sinful sickness. So suffering, cheerfulness, and then sickness—sinful sickness particularly.
The first circumstance we looked at last Lord's Day, it is the circumstance of suffering, and that is the first part of verse 13. The first circumstance that James said that we need to respond rightly to with true faith here is the circumstance of suffering. "Is anyone among you suffering?" – He says, – “then he must pray”. When you are in a trial, when you are going through a difficulty, turn upward. Turn upward to request grace and strength and wisdom and resolution and determination from Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that lives in us.
And as we go through trials, as we go through struggles, there are basically, as you remember, I trust, three directions we could turn. We could turn inward and fret and worry and become anxious and push the panic button and get angry. Or we could turn outward and hope that the circumstances will change. Maybe somebody, some other human being can help us. We seek the arm of human flesh. Or we could turn upward. And sadly, more often than not, the pattern is inward, outward, and then when we're finally stuck, we turn upward. And James says, beloved, this ought not be so. "Is anyone among you suffering?" He says, turn upward right away. Turn to God. Cry out to Him.
Now there's a second circumstance as well here in verse 13, so we'll pick up where we left off that calls for prayer. The latter part of the verse: "Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises." So the second circumstance is the circumstance of cheerfulness. Cheerfulness. This, of course, is the exact opposite of the first one, right? Christians must be prepared to face trials in a godly manner. We must do that, and we studied that, right? James 1 and even last Lord's Day: If anyone's suffering, well, must pray.
We must also be prepared to face the trial—follow closely—the test of peace and good in a godly manner. Let me say that again. We must also be prepared to face the trial, the test of peace and good, in a Godly manner. We don't usually think of peace and things going really well in our lives as a trial or as a test. But we often fail that trial more significantly than we fail the trial of suffering. Because when things get really tough, there's nowhere else to go but God. When you hit rock bottom, the only way is to look what? Up.
But when things are going fine and everything is great—smooth sailing—then God can stay on the shelf, right? And I can manage life just fine on my own. James says here, check yourself. Check yourself. If you're suffering, pray. If you're cheerful, sing praises. So cheerfulness is the second set of circumstances. By the way, this word is obviously the opposite of anger and wrath. It describes a pleasant, content state of mind. To be cheerful means to have a buoyant, exuberant outlook on life.
It's the way you feel when you get a raise. It's the way you feel when she says “yes”. It's that long-awaited holiday and it's finally come and you're exhausted and here it is. You've waited for it all throughout the year. It's the polar opposite of suffering in the first part of the verse. "Is anyone cheerful?" ‘Euthymeo’ (εὐθυμέω) is the Greek word translated cheerful. Literally, it means to be in good heart or soul. To be in good heart, good cheer, good soul. It's only used four other times in the New Testament. Three of those times, by the way, occur in Acts 27. Actually, it's very fascinating that three of the four times occur in Acts 27. It's actually telling. It's very telling.
Paul, in Acts 27, is urging those men who are on that ship that's about to go down and shipwreck with him, that's been caught in a storm for two weeks. He urges them to be ‘euthymeo’ (εὐθυμέω), cheerful. What do you mean cheerful? We're being shipwrecked! We're going to die! He says, be cheerful. So being cheerful—and this is really important for us to understand—is not necessarily describing happy circumstances. It isn't. The circumstances on board that ship in Acts 27 were not happy circumstances, but Paul says, even in the midst of that, we can be filled with joy. It's that deep sense of joy in spite of the circumstances. You can be cheerful in this sense when everything is going wonderfully, and you can also be cheerful when everything is difficult. In trouble. May I ask you this evening, are you cheerful today? Is your perspective about your life, whatever your circumstances, one of deep, inner joy?
Then here's how you respond. Look at verse 13. What is a Godly response then of a cheerful saint? He is, verse 13, to sing praises. This is God's Word. I'm simply the messenger. To sing praises. Here's the Christian in the opposite state of suffering. He's in a place of joy, a place of gladness, a place of good spirits, and he's got a spring in his step, whatever it is. James says, you still must pray.
It's a different kind of prayer. What prayer is this? Well, what does he say? He is to sing praises. From the word ‘psalletō (ψάλλω (psalló)) from which we get the word psalms. Literally, you could translate it “psalming”. Psalming. Which can often mean singing psalms. But the word in its original root means strumming. To pluck a stringed instrument. It's the word that would describe what David did on the harp as he made his psalms of praise to Yahweh, playing on a stringed instrument. He was psalming.
The word then came to mean singing and being accompanied by a stringed instrument and ultimately came to refer simply to singing praises to God. It doesn't describe a particular kind of music. In other words, God is not telling us here we have to sing one of the psalms. That's not what He's saying. "Turn to the psalms and sing it." You can do that. That's part of it, but it's not exclusively that. Instead, it describes any song of praise to God. Any song of adoration to God. This is to be our response.
And what is the idea? The idea is this: make music and sing your praise and your thanksgiving to God. Make musical prayer and thanksgiving to God when you're cheerful. You realize, beloved—I trust—you realize that every Lord's Day, every Sunday, when we sing these hymns, when we sing the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, we are praying. We're praying. You do realize that, as we sing those songs in worship, in adoration, in praise, we're not only praising and worshiping, but we're also praying.
Those are musical prayers. Those are musical, worshipful prayers. Many of our songs and hymns address God in the second person: “You”. They are directly directed to God. Even when we're singing about Him, we're still directing it to Him.
James says the very best thing to do when your heart is full, when your heart is cheerful, is to sing, play, hum musical prayers to God in worship, in adoration. I think that's one of the best motivations, really, one of them, for memorizing hymns and songs of praise, because sometimes you're going to find yourself somewhere, and God is going to bless you with joy, bless you with lightness of spirit. You'll be reflecting on a Scripture illuminated to you. You'll see an answer to prayer, and you'll see the splendor of creation perhaps somewhere around you as you're driving. You'll be marveling at the providence of God, and the Holy Spirit will bring out joy in your heart. And at that point, what do you want to do? At that point, the prayer should go up, and the greatest and highest prayers are those musical prayers. "Amazing love! How can it be?" "Great is Thy faithfulness, O God!" "Take the world. Give me Jesus."
You know, when we worship, we really need three things. We need, firstly, truth about God. Truth about God. We saw this this morning. And then secondly, we need the right affection toward that truth. But then thirdly, you need a vehicle to express that affection, don't you?
So you're getting truth about God in your heart, and the affection of love and joy is springing up, is just overflowing, and then you need a vehicle. Well, how do I express it? Haven't you ever felt that? You have this joy, this joy unspeakable, just bubbling in your heart, but you just can't articulate it. You just can't form it. You just can't shape it. You don't know what to do with it. And when you can't shape it like that, you almost feel frustrated. I wish I could put it into words, what I'm feeling. I just want to express it.
Well, that's what the best hymns songs do, and that's why it would be edifying to memorize hymns, to sing those hymns in our minds, and well-crafted hymns with rich theological truth. "My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more." "Therefore now, there's no condemnation." So when you're feeling joyful, take that joy and sing to God. Turn your cheerfulness into adoration and thanksgiving.
Do you find yourself this evening genuinely filled with the joy, with a deep sense of delight, and satisfaction in God's goodness to you, and the life that is given to you? Then your response should be to flood over with praise to God. Praise. Again, singing praises is simply another form of prayer. Praise, if it's done biblically correctly, it's another form of prayer to God. It's the overflow of our hearts speaking to God and reciting His goodness and His grace to us.
Scripture constantly resounds with the praises of God's people because of the joy that's within their hearts. It just wells up, bubbles out, and it just overflows. Let me show you a couple of examples. Turn with me back to Psalm 95. Psalm 95, a sister psalm of Psalm 100. In Psalm 95:1, I love this; here it is. It's another example. You find this resounding praise, God's people resounding with praise because of the joy that is within their heart. Look at verse 1: "Oh come, let us sing for joy to Yahweh, Let us make a loud shout to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us make a loud shout to Him with songs of praise. For Yahweh is a great God And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks and the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land." “Come”, – verse 6, –"let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before Yahweh, our Maker. For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand." We are to let the overflow of our joy turn into praise to our God.
And we see this in the New Testament as well. Turn with me for a moment to Luke 24. Luke 24. Luke records the ascension of our Lord. In verse 50, he says this: "And He,” – Christ, – “led them out as far as Bethany, lifting up His hands, He blessed them. And it happened that while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven." And how do you respond in the midst of that? How do you respond in the midst of that? Verse 52: "And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with” – what? – “great joy”. Great joy. Worship. Joy. So, what do you do if you're filled with joy? What do you do if you're cheerful? Look at how the disciples respond in verse 53: "and they were continually in the temple blessing God." Do you see that? This is to be the expression of our hearts.
You see it again in Ephesians chapter 5 in that great passage about being filled with the Spirit. We're told in verse 18, "do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." Be controlled, permeated with the Spirit. And how does that express itself? Well, verse 19 tells us how it expresses itself: "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord."
And you remember very well the parallel passage, Colossians 3:16, as explained before many times. You remember that being filled with the Spirit is identical to letting the Word of Christ dwell richly within you. The same thing—to be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Word of God. To be controlled by the Word of God is to be filled with the Spirit. And how does that express itself? Colossians 3:16: "with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to the Lord." This is to be our response, beloved. Are you in trouble this evening? James says, then you're to pray. But if, as you sit here tonight, you could say that your life and your perspective about your life, whatever your circumstances may be, is one of a deep sense of inner joy, then you are to respond by singing praises to God—a different kind of prayer to God Himself. You're still turning upward. You’re still turning upward.
Back to our text, James 5. And I want us to see the big picture here. There's so much for us, by the way, here. I want us to see the big picture. Let's step back and look at the big picture of what James is telling us with these two questions: Is anyone suffering? Is anyone cheerful? Is anyone suffering? Is anyone cheerful, right? James intends to encompass every season and circumstance of life—to put bookends, if you will, on all of life in all circumstances. And he uses those two as bookends and everything in between. Every experience that you and I can encounter in life is included in verse 13. Everyone. Whatever it is that you're going through right now, it's included.
Alec Motyer, in his commentary, writes this. He says, "Here then, in two words—the words suffering and cheerful—are all life's experiences, and each of them in turn can so easily be the occasion of spiritual upset." Have you ever thought about that? Listen to what He says. “Trouble can give rise to an attitude of surly rebellion against God and the abandonment of spiritual practices.”
Ever tempted in the midst of a trial, trouble, to turn in anger on God? To question the goodness of God? To push back against the providence of God? "God, why are You doing this to me? God, I don't understand. It's not fair. Why are You doing this to my family?" And to actually fail to practice, as He says here—abandoned spiritual practices for a time—to ignore the Word of God, to ignore prayer, to ignore the corporate gathering for worship. Trouble can lead us there.
Motyer goes on to say, ”Equally, times of ease and affluence beget complacency, laziness, and the assumption that we are able of ourselves to cope with life, and God is forgotten”. You see, just as trouble can lead us into rebellion, ease can lead us into forgetfulness. Watch out. Be on your guard. When success puts you in a cheerful mood, it's easy to leave God behind.
We know what happened to David walking on the rooftop. As long as the sun is shining, we don't feel really a strong need for God, who is light. We embrace the blessing, but perhaps not the Blesser. Whether we find ourselves in trouble or in triumph and everything in between, James says we are to pray. We are to remember God. We are to turn upward. So every circumstance is included—every circumstance of life is included in verse 13.
But there's more in verse 13. Look again at the word "cheerful." You see ‘euthymeo’ (εὐθυμέω). Notice the word "cheerful." Notice with me this word ‘euthymeo’ (εὐθυμέω) —cheerful—does not describe a circumstance, but rather our response to our circumstances. This is key. It describes our response to our circumstances. In other words, it describes our emotions. What James wants us to understand is that not only should every circumstance we face drive us to God, but our emotional response to our circumstances—whatever that may be—should also drive us to God. You see, emotion is a God-given gift. It's part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Biblical language tells us that God has emotions of various kinds.
Now, we've got to be careful here with that. It's important that we think about this accurately, biblically. All the biblical descriptions of emotion and God are what theologians call anthropopathic. That means that God doesn't experience emotions in exactly the same way that you and I do. Our emotions are physical responses to external stimuli. They are physical responses to something we perceive, or something we think, or something we believe. For example, you're driving down the highway and God forbid on your way home from church, and you have a near accident. And what emotion do you experience? Fear. Fear. Now why? I mean, you didn't have an accident. Why would you experience fear? It's because your perception to the exterior, external stimuli of that near accident causes your body to respond with fear, because that's how you perceive the situation.
But God isn't like that. God doesn't react, because nothing surprises God, right? He knows the end from the beginning. So when emotions are given or prescribed to God in the Scripture, we're simply being told that to help us understand something that's true about God, but it's not exactly like our emotions. But nevertheless, listen carefully: God doesn't react, but He describes Himself as experiencing emotions. He feels them. That means there's something in God which can best be explained by comparing it to our emotions. We are made in the image of God, and our God-given emotions—whatever… They are—should always—drive us to God. Always. Always. Whatever emotion it is that you're experiencing right now, that is to be an impetus to go to God, whether it's in prayer or whether it is in praise and adoration to God.
If you want to see what that looks like in real life, I encourage you to study, meditate on the Psalms, because the book of the Psalms serves as, as G. Campbell Morgan calls it, “The book in which the emotions of the human soul find expression—the book in which the emotions of the human soul find expression.” Another author says that “the Psalms are a mirror into which one can peer and see himself and his emotions reflected”. So Psalms provide us with a divinely intended record and a pattern of a man expressing himself to God—a pattern, if you will, of prayer, praise, based on not only all of the different experiences of life, but also based on our different emotional reaction to all of the circumstances of life.
Let me show us a couple of examples from the life of David—life and pen of David under inspiration. And this is really helpful for us at this point. Turn back with me to Psalm 3, and I want us to see how Psalms are intended to show us that whatever emotion we're facing, whatever experiences cause that emotion, all of that, beloved, all of it is to drive us to God; to turn upward.
Psalm 3, the title says it's "A Psalm of David. When he fled from Absalom his son." And I want you for a moment to try to put yourself in David's shoes, or David's sandals at this moment, the moment that the Psalm was written, in the circumstances that led up to it. Think about this for a moment: is there anything worse for a king than a rebellion against his kingship? It's hard to imagine anything getting much worse than that. And yet, it was worse for David. Why? Because the rebellion came from his own son, Absalom.
David's on the run. He's lost his throne. He's lost his kingdom. And it's because of his son. Notice—notice his response in verse 1: “O Yahweh, how my adversaries have become many! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” But You, O Yahweh, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head. I was calling to Yahweh with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for Yahweh sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who all around have set themselves against me. Arise, O Yahweh; save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked.
Salvation belongs to Yahweh; Your blessing be upon Your people!"
I mean, right here you see David in the wide range of his emotions through this experience, the circumstance, everything from the despondency and despair that come with being attacked by your own son and having people in your kingdom rally to him, and to the hope that God will act on his behalf. But all of it—all of it—drove him where? Upward. To God.
Fast forward to Psalm 6. You have a prayer for mercy in time of trouble. Again, you see the heart of David poured out before God. This is a pattern for us, beloved. This is how we are to pour out our hearts before God. “O Yahweh, do not reprove me in Your anger, Nor discipline me in Your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, for I am pining away; Heal me, O Yahweh, for my bones are dismayed. And my soul is greatly dismayed; But You, O Yahweh—how long? Return, O Yahweh, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness. For there's no remembrance of You in death; In Sheol, who will give You thanks? I am weary with my sighing; Every night I make my bed swim, I flood my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted away with grief; It has become old because of all my adversaries.”
What I want you to see, beloved, is that when David found himself in trouble, where did he turn? Where did he turn? He said when he found himself discouraged, and the emotion—the emotion of absolute, utter despondency and discouragement—came upon him, where did he go? He turned to Yahweh. He went to the Lord.
But you see, the opposite is true as well. Turn to Psalm 9, just a few pages over. David writes in Psalm 9, "I will give thanks to Yahweh with all my heart; I will recount all Your wondrous deeds. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High." And he goes on through a song to recite the goodness, the greatness of God caring for him—a totally different tone, an emotional tone in totally different circumstances.
Psalm 30, one last song. You see again the sense of joy overflowing in praise. It's a song of dedication of the house, and it's written, "I will exalt You, O Yahweh, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my enemies be glad over me. O Yahweh, my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me. O Yahweh, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. Sing praise to Yahweh, you His holy ones, And give thanks for the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning."
You see how David, whatever the circumstances in his life—whatever his own emotional response to that circumstance—he let it drive him to God, not away from God. He's open and honest about his emotions. But here's the key, beloved: they push him to his God, not away from God. He turns to God. He turns to God.
And James is telling us exactly the same thing. He's saying whatever your circumstances are—whatever your circumstances, whatever season of life we may be in, and whatever our perspective or emotions about those circumstances may be—we are to turn upward. Turn to God in prayer. Turn to Him and cry out to Him. Pour out your heart before Him. Trust in Him at all times you people; the Psalmist says – “pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us."
This is reminiscent of Paul's constant call to pray always. Ephesians 6:18, “pray at all times." Pray at all times—suffering, cheerful, everything in between. 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray without ceasing."
Jesus Himself, our Lord, taught us to make this kind of prayer a priority. You remember in Luke 18, He teaches a parable to communicate the importance of prayer. And in verse 1, "Now He was telling them a parable," – and here was its purpose – "to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart." Keep praying. Keep praying. Keep praying. Keep turning upward. Whatever your circumstances may be, don't lose heart. Pour out your heart to God. And here's the parable: “In a certain city there was a certain judge who did not fear God, did not respect men”. In other words, this guy didn't care, didn't care a bit. Didn't care about justice. Didn't care about the people he was supposedly serving. He only cared about himself. “Now there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him and saying, " "Give me justice from my opponent." And for a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, "Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow is bothering me, I will give her justice, lest by continually coming she wears me out."”
And the Lord said—and don't miss the point—hear what the unjust judge said. “Now, will God not bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?" Here's the point, the moral of the story: God is nothing—absolutely nothing—like that unrighteous judge. And if that unrighteous judge gave in to the persistence of that woman simply to get her off his back, how much more eager is our loving Father willing to respond to us, His children?
So turn to Him. Turn upward in the midst of your trouble. Turn to Him when you're cheerful. Turn to Him. And we ought to always pray and not lose heart. And let us not miss this, the main point of verse 13—it is that every circumstance and every emotion is intended to drive us to God. Every circumstance and every emotion is intended to drive us to God.
As John Calvin said of this passage, "James means there is no time in which God does not invite us to Himself." I love that—simple but yet salient. James means there's no time in which God does not invite us to Himself. There's no time, there's no circumstance, there's nothing you might be feeling that would cause God not to invite you to Himself. "Call on Me in the day of distress and I will rescue you, and you will glorify Me."
Alec Motyer writes again, "Our whole life should be so angled towards God that whatever strikes upon us, whether sorrow or joy, should be deflected upwards at once into His presence." He goes on to say, "In particular, this is an exercise in glad acceptance of the will of God." Those last words are very, very critical. In particular, this is an exercise in glad acceptance of the will of God.
This is the common denominator—that is, accepting God's will is the common denominator in prayer and praise. In praise, we say to Him, "God, Your will is good, acceptable, and perfect. This is what You've done for me, and I rejoice in it. I bless Your holy name. Your will is good, acceptable, and perfect." And in time of trouble, we pray and ask God to help us and attempt—however poorly we may succeed—to imitate the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus in saying, "Not My will, let Yours be done, Lord. Your will."
That is exactly what James is saying here in James 5:13. As John Blanchard describes it this way, "We have a God for all seasons. If you find the world on top of you, pray. And if you find yourself on top of the world, then praise." I love that. If you find the world on top of you, then pray. If you find yourself on top of the world, then praise.
And why is this important? Because when we pray to God in our trouble—follow closely—when we pray to God in our trouble, in our affliction, our suffering, in our difficulty, when we pray to God in our trouble, we acknowledge His sovereign power to meet all our needs. His grace is sufficient. When we pray in the middle of trouble and say, "God, I need Your help." We're saying, "God, everything I need in the midst of this affliction, in the midst of this difficulty, is found in You and nowhere else."
And when we, in the midst of our joy, God, say in praise, singing in praise, we acknowledge that God, in His sovereign goodness, has brought those circumstances into our lives. We say, "God, the reason I am cheerful, the reason I am in joy, I am in these great circumstances, the reason that my heart can be filled with joy even in these difficult circumstances is because of You, God."
On the other hand, when we don't pray, we're revealing to ourselves and to everyone around us that those things are not true. You see, when we pray and when we praise, we acknowledge God as our all-sufficiency. When we pray and when we praise, we acknowledge God as our all-sufficiency. But when we don't, we are acknowledging that we don't believe He is our sufficiency.
If you find yourself in trouble and you're not praying, you know what you're saying? What you're saying is this: "God, what I really need in this situation isn't coming from You, and You can't help me." That's what you're saying. Or if we find ourselves in the midst of joy—a deep sense of inner peace and joy of the circumstances in which we find ourselves and/or through the circumstance in which we find ourselves—and we don't praise God, then what we're saying is this: "God, You had nothing to do with this joyful circumstance. You had nothing to do with this blessing."
You see, as we contemplate the priority of prayer, don't forget the theme of James' letter. Remember what it is: it is a test of what? Living faith. Remember, there's a living faith that is a saving faith, and there's a dead faith that's like that of the demons that will not save. A simple grasp of the facts about Jesus Christ will not bring salvation. James taught us this again and again, and one of the tests of the reality of our faith is whether or not we continually find ourselves resorting to God in prayer and praise.
A commentator, Edmond Hiebert, writes, "Christian faith finds its center and power in a vital relationship with God through prayer in all the experiences of life." You see, the habit of prayer should be, and in fact is, one of the most profound marks of genuine Christian faith.
And so I close by asking these questions: is your faith living or is it dead? Take a look at your prayer. Take a look at your praise. James not only understood this, but he practiced it. I find this really fascinating. Listen to the early church father Eusebius quoting an ancient tradition. He wrote this of James, "James' knees grew hard like camels because of his constant worship of God in prayer." He not only taught it, but he lived it. May God give us a commitment to the priority of prayer just like James.
Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for this portion of Your Word. And thank You, thank You for the reminder that all of life, that every single circumstance that we face, and that every emotional response that we have to every circumstance that we face, are merely catalysts to drive us back to You and to Your great heart—to Your goodness, to Your benevolence, to Your care, to Your love, to Your loving-kindness. Father, teach us as believers to live like that, to think like that. Lord, may every emotion that we experience this week drive us to you Oh Lord. Oh Lord, may every circumstance in which we find ourselves—whether it is suffering or cheerfulness—may we find ourselves driven back to You. May every circumstance in which we find ourselves drive us back to You, Oh Lord. And Father, tonight I pray for the person who may be here tonight who has to honestly say that they failed the test of living faith because prayer is such a foreign thing to their heart and life. Oh Lord. Oh Lord, I pray that You would help them to see, no matter what their claim of Christ may be, but they may in fact have a dead faith. It's not saving faith. May they tonight awaken to new life, life that beats with a new heart after Yours. Draw them to You. And I pray for your children who are particularly going through trying and difficult painful circumstances as they turn to You upward, minister to them we pray. And we ask in Jesus’ name and for His sake.
Amen
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