Prayers to a Sovereign God

James 5:13-20

Good morning church. It is good to be in the house of the Lord together today. I know this has been a long time coming now, but today, we will be finishing the Letter of James. If you would like to be turning in your copy of the Scriptures, our text for today will be James 5:13-20. The title I have given todays message is “Prayers to a sovereign God.”

It is just over a year ago that we began studying through this letter together, and a lot of life has happened since. I’m sure many of us have walked through trials, and temptations over this last year, and hopefully the themes of the letter of James have been in our minds as we have walked through these circumstances. James reminds us that the purpose of all of these circumstances we go through, is to grow us into spiritual maturity, and make us more like Christ. We are continually reminded, throughout James’ letter, that we are to look to God throughout trials, tribulations, and temptations that we must endure. James closes out his letter with some final instructions for spiritual maturity, that as follower of Christ, we should be a people of prayer.

Prayer is an important part of the life of the believer, that often is neglected, until we find ourselves in a time of need or want. We may look at prayer and think that it must be an elaborate moment, of many large words, and we fail to realize that prayer is something that is simple, and should be a major part of our everyday lives.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Praying without ceasing is the will of God for each of us. It does not mean we constantly walk around praying out loud, but that our lives are constantly lived in a posture of prayer, before God. We must realize prayer is simply talking and having relationship with God. As we go through our daily activities, we pray without ceasing, by maintaining hearts and minds that are fixed on God. Prayer does not require some elaborate, scripted speech in which we make known our needs to God, but it is simply talking to our loving Father.

Living our lives, focused on prayer, allows us to be used greatly by God.

David Brainerd was just a young man—only 29 when he died—but in that short life, he became a giant of prayer.

In the 1700s, he left the comforts of colonial New England to carry the gospel to Native American tribes in the wilderness. He rode through rain and snow, often sick with tuberculosis, often coughing up blood. He slept outside. He preached through pain. And most of all—he prayed.

His journal entries are raw and powerful. Time after time, he wrote things like: “I withdrew for prayer, in secret groves, and wrestled with God for souls.” “I was in such agony of soul, that I was wet with perspiration though in the shade and cool wind.” Brainerd would spend hours interceding—begging God to pour out His Spirit. And God did.

Whole villages came under conviction. Natives who had never heard the gospel wept as they encountered the grace of Christ. Brainerd never saw “mega results,” but what he planted—through prayer—sparked movements that would long outlive him. Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian, published Brainerd’s journal. It went on to inspire thousands—including missionaries like William Carey and Henry Martyn.

Brainerd’s body was weak. But his prayers were mighty. His life reminds us: you don’t have to live long to live fully. When you pray with passion, even a short life can echo across centuries.

James talks about the power of the tongue multiple times throughout his letter, and here in our text he mentions one of the highest uses of the tongue, praying and praising God. In todays text James mentions prayer 7 times, and shows how important it is to the life of the believer. By taking our needs, our trials, our temptations, our joys, our victories, and everything in our lives to God in prayer, we show a mark of spiritual maturity in our lives.

There is a quote from the reformer Martin Luther, who was known to spending much time in prayer every day. When asked what his plans for the day were, Luther responded; “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Luther understood the importance a life of prayer would have upon the day he was about to face.

Invitation to James: Persevering through Trials to Win the Crown 14. The Prayer of Faith (James 5:13–20)

James’s theme in 5:13–20 is, “Whatever is going on in your life, or in the lives of those you care about, you should be talking to God about it. Whatever is happening to you or to others, you should be praying about it.” He’ll stress this theme four times, bringing up four situations, four events of life, as examples of things we ought to be praying about. And within this overall flow, we’ll find his sentences about the prayer offered in faith

This is the Word of the Lord, to His people:

James 5:13–20 (ESV)

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 

15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 

18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. 

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 

20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

This is the Word of the Lord, Amen.

In the section we just read, James describes four situations in which God answers prayer

Prayer while Suffering (v.13)

Prayers for the Sick (v. 14-16)

Prayers for the Nation (v.17-18)

Prayers for the Straying (v.19-20)

Prayers while Suffering (v. 13)

Opening Up James Life in General (v. 13)

Life consists of two parts: the bad and the good. Alec Motyer writes,

Here, then, in two words, are all life’s experiences, and each of them in turn can so easily be the occasion of spiritual upset. Trouble can give rise to an attitude of surly rebellion against God and the abandonment of spiritual practices. 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.1

James has a word for us no matter what life brings our way. When things are bad, he tells us to pray. When things are good, he tells us to praise.

We can put it like this: Christians should find themselves naturally gravitating towards God in every situation of life.

James begins with the reminder, that if we are suffering, it is important that we pray. We pray and lean on God to bring us through whatever circumstance we are currently walking through. We spoke of this earlier in the letter, that we do not try to find our own way out, because we do not always know why God might have us in a specific circumstance, but we can trust that He has us there for a reason, and if we try to make our own way out, without trusting in Him for our deliverance, then we will lose the opportunity to grow in spiritual maturity.

There are many times that we may endure difficulties that are not the result of sins we may have committed, or may not be part of discipline from God. We are told in these circumstance not to complain, to county it joy, and to pray to God for wisdom that is needed, so that we may glorify Him in the circumstance. We can pray to God to remove times of trouble from us, but prayer can also give us the grace and strength to endure whatever God wills for us to endure, for His glory.

James points out that when we are suffering, pray, and then if we are cheerful, sing praise. If we are to count it joy when we suffer, then we should be praising God through the midst of our suffering, because we can hold to His promise, that His will for us is for our good and His glory. When we change our prayers during these times from “why,” Why am I going through this, why are you allowing this God, why me…. and we change our prayer to “what,” what are you saying to me through this God, what do you want me to learn, or what do you want me to accomplish, then we will see a marked difference in our lives. It is the spiritualy mature Christian that can work to change their cries in difficulties from why to what. From why me, to what is YOUR will God.

The story of Paul and Silas in Acts 16:25-26 give us a good example of this. They had been beaten and locked in a prison cell for preaching the Gospel. We are told that they began to sing and worship the Lord in the midst of the darkest part of the night, and that the ground began to shake, their chains were loosed, and not just their chains, but the chains of all the prisoners around them. They sang joyfully through their circumstance, through the darkness of their location, they praised God and not only were they affected, but they affected the lives of every prisoner around them in that jail that night. There is a spiritual power in the prayer and praise of the believer, that will say no matter my circumstance, I will praise and thank God for who He is!

Our singing, our praise, should be an outward reflection and expression of an inwardly changed heart that is no longer bound in slavery to sin, but is now set free in Jesus.

James James 5:13–20

James then turns to times of being cheerful and in good spirits. What’s the fitting response? Singing praise! This is the first mention of cheerfulness or praise in the book, although there are others references to joy (1:2; 4:9). Based on James’ command to consider trials pure joy, the first reference reminds us that rejoicing is a choice, not an emotion.

We choose to rejoice, and count it joy when we go through trials and temptations. We choose to pray our way through our suffering, not asking God why, but asking God what He wants to accomplish through us. How beautiful is the testimony of the saint that is going through job loss, family issues, money problems, sickness, and even death, yet they daily choose to rejoice and praise God through their circumstance. Through these circumstances the world can look and see that there is a difference when God is at work in the life of the believer, and the life of the non-believer when faced with adversary.

We pray through our suffering, and then praise God for allowing us to endure, knowing that He is growing and shaping us into the image of His Son through every step.

Prayers for the Sick (v.14-16)

The next situation that James deals with in prayer is prayers for the sick. James is not just referring to prayers for all sickness here, but is specifically speaking of prayer for sickness that has been caused by sin in a persons life.

There are some quick statements around healing from sickness that I want to address here, that diverts from this specific context, because so many times these verses are used out of context by many teachers to give their particular spin on healing and miracles. God does still heal. God does still perform miracles, but there are some clear distinctions we must recognize or we might find ourselves in a crisis of faith.

Believer’s Bible Commentary Divine Healing

1. Christians agree that all sickness is, in a general way, the result of sin in the world. If sin had never entered, there would be no sickness.

2. Sometimes sickness is a direct result of sin in a person’s life. In

Teachings around healing are often wrong, and are taught where the new believer especially, and even the seasoned believer, may stumble in their faith, if they believe what is being taught. There are different reasons that we may find ourselves sick, and it is not always Gods will to heal you while you are on this earth. Its not because of a lack of faith you aren’t being healed, its may not be a sin or discipline from God, though it may be. It may be that it is simply a side affect of our broken world.

I grew up in the holiness, pentecostal church. I remember praying as an older teenage that had been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes for God to heal me. I remember thinking maybe I just didn’t have enough faith, and thats why I wasn’t being healed, to the point I even attempted to stop taking my insulin to prove my faith that God would heal me. This was false teaching on healing and even spiritual abuse that led me to believe this. It was simply not God’s will to heal me at that time, and there was no greater amount of faith or belief that would make a difference.

I want to say something very carefully, and I want to make sure the whole of what I’m saying is heard. It is always Gods will to heal us, BUT sometimes that healing will not take place while we are in these bodies on this earth. As believers we are promised new bodies, and a new heaven, and a new earth, where there will be no more sickness, or sadness. God will heal us in His time, and whether it is on this earth or not He will do it. We must learn to pray that God’s will be done above all else, and in these prayers we find rest in His will, whether it means healing now, or healing later. We can know that God has a purpose in it all.

The person James is speaking about in this passage is someone that is sick because of sin in their life. These verses in the greek read as “If he has been constantly sinning.” The person James describes here is sick, because they are being disciplined by God. Part of a healthy church is church discipline, and that is why the Elders must be called. This person is so afflicted that they are unable to come to the church, they may have been removed from the assembly as part of their discipline, so they ask the Elders of the church to come to them, so that they may repent of there sins, be prayed for, and be restored to the body of believers.

Many times we want to skip this important part of being in the church. It is never pleasant for a church to have to issue disciplinary measures towards a member, but it is an act of love when it is done correctly. This person confessed their sins to the elders of the church, and they find healing in the prayer that is prayed for them. It is not the oil they are anointed with that brings healing, it is not because one specific person prayed over them, its not because they gave an extra amount in the offering and now God is going to multiply, it is because they submitted to church discipline and God used the prayers of the elders to bring forgiveness of this sin and healing to their body through Jesus.

This is beautiful because it shows the body of Christ functioning as the body of Christ is supposed to, and the church functioning as it is supposed to. James ends this letter talking about the backslider, and we get a preview here of the path to redemption within the body of Christ. When Church discipline is done, through love in the body of Christ, Christ will use that to provide a beautiful painting of restoration of the lost sheep, back to the fold of Christ.

So what is this prayer of faith that heals the sick?

Kent Hughes explains: ‘… the prayer of faith is not something we can manufacture by saying “I believe, I believe, I believe, I really believe, I truly believe, I double believe!” It is a gift from God’ (italics are his).5 Hughes then shares these words from John Blanchard: ‘The “prayer offered in faith” is circular in shape; it begins and ends in heaven, in the sovereign will of God.’6

 Roger Ellsworth, Opening up James, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2009), 161–162.

We find the answer to what is the prayer of faith in 1 John;

1 John 5:14–15 “14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”

Sickness is sometimes a result of sin, sometimes a result of discipline, and often times it is a result of living in a broken world, and God can use our affliction to grow us to spiritual maturity and glorify Him. The prayer of faith is the prayer that is offered when the will of God is known. The Elders would pray and seek after Gods will in the matter, and then pray accordingly. It is one of the hardest prayers we will find ourselves praying, when we pray for healing for our loved ones, or ourselves, and we must pray; God whatever Your will is, let it be done. When we are impressed by the Holy Spirit that it is God’s will to heal, then we can pray in faith, believing, and know that God will work and bring healing in that life. Sometimes the prayer of faith is not for physical healing in this life, sometimes God says I will heal, but not yet. The prayer of faith may be to strengthen and comfort the sick in their affliction.

A righteous person here is referring to the body of Elders of the local church. Not some flashy faith healer, or televangelist, but a matter that is in the hands of the local church. This is one of the many reasons that God has given us the local body of believers, and why we are commanded to assemble together. We were not made to walk through this life, and live this Christian life by ourselves. If we are forsaking the assembling together of the church, then we are in direct sin against the commands of God in Scripture.

Hebrews 10:25 “25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

We gather together to encourage each other in the faith, to study God’s Word and grow together in spiritual maturity, to hold each other accountable and when one stumbles and fails in their walk, they are lifted up and assisted by the believers around them. We are family, much stronger family than human blood can create. Some may not have grown up with a great family around them, may have not had great parents or siblings, but we are given a family that is not connected through DNA and human blood, but that is formed through the powerful blood of our saviour, Jesus Christ. This is a family that is created and gathered by our good Father in Heaven above, and this family, is always good. This is not to say that we will not have disagreements or issues within our spiritual family, but Scripture lines out how these issues are to be handled, and we are taught that we are always bound together as one, in Christ.

Invitation to James: Persevering through Trials to Win the Crown 14. The Prayer of Faith (James 5:13–20)

A righteous person is not someone who is sinlessly perfect, but someone who is simply walking with God, caring about what God wants, wanting to honor and obey him. A righteous person is an ordinary, normal person who wants to serve God

There is great power found in the prayers of the person, that wants to follow after the will of God, and purposes to seek after Gods will alone in each and every circumstance that leads them to pray for healing.

Prayer for the Nation (v.17-18)

Next James brings up another Old Testament prophet, Elijah. He uses Elijah as an example of a “righteous” man who prays in the power of God. The background for this is found in 1 Kings 17-18. King Ahab and Jezebel had led the people of Israel away from the worship of the one true God, and had turned them to the worship of the false god, Baal. God punishes the people for this sin by stopping the rain from falling for 3 1/2 years.

We had talked previously, with the farm analogies, how important this rain was for the people to produce food to eat, and grow their crops, but for 3 1/2 years there was no rain. Elijah then challenges the priests of Baal to a showdown on Mt. Carmel. The priests of Baal cry out all day for rain to fall but no answer came. I love the story because it tells us how Elijah actually stood to the side, and made fun of the priests for their futile efforts.

Elijah then repaired the alter, and offered the evening sacrifice to the one true God. After praying once, fire came from Heaven and consumed the sacrifice on the alter. Elijah continued to pray, and sent his servant 7 separate times to look for evidence that rain was coming, and on the seventh time, Elijahs servant saw a small cloud in the distance. Soon the rain began to fall and the nation was saved from famine.

Elijah was not perfect by any means, but he prayed in faith believing that what God had said would happen, was going to happen.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Thirteen: Let Us Pray (James 5:13–20)

“Prayer,” said Robert Law, “is not getting man’s will done in heaven. It’s getting God’s will done on earth.” You cannot separate the Word of God and prayer, for in His Word He gives us the promises that we claim when we pray.

Elijah was consistent in his prayer. He didn’t stop after one prayer and say; “oh well, I guess God changed His mind.” He knew what God had said, and he knew that God’s word was true, and he continued to pray until he saw Gods promise fulfilled. The Greek reads here that “he prayed in prayer.” That he prayed and believed with his whole heart.

Greater than any power known to man in this world, is the power of God in prayer. Elijah prayed for his nation, and God answered his prayer. We pray for our nation, and our land today, that God will draw all to Him and that His blessings will be poured out.

Prayers for the Straying (v.19-20)

Finally James speaks of prayers for those that are straying from God, or are backsliding from Christianity. Part of our responsibility as the family of God is to pray for and seek after the restoration of those that wander from God.

We must stay close to the truth of God’s Word and correct those that stray from it or it their sin may influence the entire body.

Ecclesiastes 9:18 “18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.”

Sin, wandering from truth, allowed within the body of Christ, can destroy the good the church can do. If left unchecked, and the backslider is allowed to continue in their sin, James warns that this can result in death. Even if someone is saved, there are still consequences for sins that are left unrepented, and God will do what He needs to do in discipline, or correction to get their attention and bring repentance.

God promised that the work He began in the life of every believer will be completed. Jesus promised that none that the Father gives Him will be lost. We may stray. We see this in the parable Jesus tells of the shepherd that leaves the 99 and goes to seek after the 1 sheep that is lost. This is a pastoral parable, of the church seeking after those who have wandered. This is the promise of Jesus, that as the Good Shepherd, He will go and find the lost sheep and return them to the fold.

Opening Up James The Problem Which James Addresses (v. 19)

Backsliders do not lose their salvation. How thankful we should be for that! Backsliding means wandering from the truth (v. 19).

What is it to wander from the truth? It means loosening our grip on the Word of God to the point that we do not hold as firmly as we once did to its teachings. And that always leads to the loosening of the Bible’s grip on how we live.

James’s description of the backslider should make all of us heed the words of

We must always help a brother that is in error, but we must correct in love.

1 Peter 4:8 “8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

Proverbs 10:12 “12 Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”

When the love of Christ is made known and held to in our lives, it is only by the grace and mercy of God, through the blood bought love of Christ, that we are made righteous before God, and we are saved from the penalty for our sins.

I love the imagery that is brought up in one of the commentaries, of the work of salvation and the covering of a multitude of sin. The rituals and laws that God setup in the Old Testament show such vivid images of the salvation that was to come through the Messiah.

Opening Up James The Christian Will ‘Cover a Multitude of Sins’

Gordon Keddie suggests that the word ‘cover’ takes us back to the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat of the Old Testament.3

The ark was a box in which the Law of Moses was placed. Above the box were stationed cherubim, who represented God himself. If the ark consisted of nothing more, it would have done nothing but give testimony to an awesome reality, namely, God taking note of our disobedience to his holy law.

But there was another part of the ark. Thank God it was there! The mercy seat! The mercy seat was a flat gold plate that sat between the box and the cherubim. When the high priest of Israel made atonement for the sins of the people, he would take the blood of a sacrifice and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. And the blood of the mercy seat covered the broken law! It was as if God could not see the sin because of the blood!

All of this was designed, of course, to picture the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus. The blood that he shed on the cross covers the sins of all those who believe in him.

But that same blood also covers the sins of Christians who backslide. Keddie says, ‘… it is this rich theology of covering which is associated with the winning of others to Christ, for the obvious reason that it is the same blood-bought salvation which alike saves the pagan and the backslidden Christian.’4

CLOSING

As we come to the close, the end, of the letter of James, we must take and apply all we have learned to our lives, to study how God has matured us spiritually throughout all the circumstances He has allowed us to walk through. Both the things we call good, and the things we consider bad, have all been ordained by God, that we are to walk through them, and He has promised He will use it all for our good, according to HIS will.

James Final Reflections

James teaches us that acquiring faith and wisdom is admirable, but it is only the beginning. Unless we humbly apply them and withstand the tests that come our way, we will never bear the fruit that God intended. Faith that is never put into action is dead, and the religion that it fosters is worthless. Self-serving is not divine, but demonic.

James’ challenge to us is not simply, “Got faith?” He wants to know what we are doing with it—and so does God, whose return is ever nearer. How are we going to respond to this challenge? By humbling ourselves before God and walking in the grace he offers us.

So we must examine our hearts and our lives and seek to answer if we are following what James has laid out for the church.

Are we becoming more patient as we walk through the tests in life that God allows us to endure?

Do we flirt with temptation, do we see how close we can get to the line without crossing over, or do we run and flee from it immediately?

Do we find our joy and our peace in obeying God’s Word, or do we simply commit to a head knowledge with no heart behind it?

Have we given control of our tongue to God, or are we using it still to cut down and hurt others?

Do we ask and seek after God’s will in the plans we make, the prayers we pray, the way we steward what God has blessed us with?

Do we ultimately seek to glorify God in all we do, or do we seek to glorify ourselves?

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 5:19–20

Stand with confidence, serve with compassion, speak with care, submit with contrition, and share with concern. A believer should be what God wants him to be, do what God wants him to do, say what God wants him to say, sense what God wants him to sense, and share what God wants him to share. Spiritual maturity involves every aspect of life

PRAYER

Father, I pray that through every trial and circumstance we find ourselves that we approach it with prayer. I pray we seek after you with all that we have and seek for Your will to be done above all else. That when we walk through these times that you give us the strength to endure and that You grow us to greater maturity in You. I thank You that we are never forced to walk through hard times alone but You have promised that You are always with us. I thank you Father for the family that you have surrounded us with. I pray that we lift each other up and that we hold each other accountable, encouraging each other, as we wait until the time we are with You. Let the lessons we have learned from James take root in our hearts and our minds, that we continue to grow to be more like Christ in every way. I thank You for Your blessings. I pray all of this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

BENEDICTION

1 Peter 1:3–5

“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”