Faithful/faithless

As we begin the close the book of James he is going to move towards some practical steps for us as we ask ourselves what attitudes need to change and how to do live in obedience towards the Lord.

And James makes very clear in this passage just how important personal integrity is, because as he says in verses 15-16 the Lord hears the prayer of the righteous and He will save them.

In every verse, from verse 12-18, the word prayer is used. So James make very clear that He is calling the church to pray. Pray if you are sick, if you are cheerful, if you are hurting, or if you need forgiveness. The other thing that James make clear is that God answers prayer. But as you read what James says you start to ask the question, “in what way does the Lord save the righteous?” Because James says “the prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect” So James, are you talking about physical healing or spiritual? Yes. Okay... So if you ask in faith that means that you will always be physically healed? Eh, not necessarily. Well then what does it mean that “the prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” Well, it means that God answers prayers. Okay, so then it feels like we are right back to where we started. But I think we need to read everything James says in view of a conversation Jesus has with the Pharisees in Mark 2. You may remember the man who was lame, and his four friends brought him to the roof of the house and lowered him down to Jesus. And the first thing that Jesus says to him is not that he is healed, but that his sins are forgiven, which makes the pharisees think why He would speak like this since only God can forgive sins. But it says that Jesus perceived their hearts and said this to them.

Mark 2:8–11 CSB

Right away Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were thinking like this within themselves and said to them, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat, and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he told the paralytic—“I tell you: get up, take your mat, and go home.”

Jesus asks the question, “which is easier? Healing the sick or forgiving sins?” I think another way we can ask it is “which is easier? To heal the physical or heal the spiritual?”. I think James is asking the same question, and not just which is easier but what is more important. Because throughout this passage it seems like what James is telling them is “are any of you dealing with illness or physical pain? Are any of you dealing with financial uncertainty?” But as you read what James says more carefully you recognize he is not dealing with just the physical but more importantly with the spiritual. In fact, he seems to be directing his readers, who are considering the physical strife they are going through, and he is pointing them to the spiritual help that they need. Everything that he says to them is seeking to help them deal with the spiritual realities that lie underneath the physical pain.

Because when we go through physical pain, relationship pain, financial pain who do we direct our anger towards? We don’t look at our money and say “why do I not have more of you?” When we have physical pain we don’t look at the part hurting us and say “why do you want me to suffer?” When we go through relational pain we do have questions for those we have issue with, but we also go to God and say “why did you put this person in my life?” So we do, in some way, recognize that even when we have earthly pain that there is more than just the material burden.

And I want to be careful, because James isn’t saying “God will always heal you from your physical pain, nor is it saying ‘never asked for physical healing”. But what I think we should take a look at today is in what way James is calling us to pray. Because I believe James is showing us that prayer is not just about asking God to heal or to forgive, but it is about the faith that you put in God when you pray. Prayer must be an attitude of faith that God can do whatever you have called on Him to do, and that he can do even more. So how does prayer exactly lead us to this attitude of faith?

Prayer reminds us of our need for personal integrity

Last week James spoke to the readers about patience through trials, recognizing that there is a greater reward for those who wait for the coming of the Lord. Then, in a sort of odd transition, he starts to talk about not swearing, but letting your yes be yes and your no be no “so that you won’t fall under judgment.” James here is quoting directly from Jesus in Matthew 5:34-37. In Matthew, and here in James the issue that is being dealt with is authenticity and truthfulness by believers. You may remember being a kid and when your friend told you something you had to make sure they weren’t crossing their fingers behind their back, or crossing their tongue in their mouth, and you had to make them pinkie promise. But that isn’t the type of honestly believers should have, people should not have to take everything you say with a grain of salt. Believers should honest in their words, for if they can’t be honest with their words than how can you trust them to be honest in the rest of their lives? What is being made clear is that for believers, and for the church, is the importance of personal integrity in the life of the believer.

Then James mentions in v. 15 and 16 that the “prayer of faith will save the sick person…if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” James seems to be making a strong connection between our confession of sin, our righteous standing before God and the church, and the way in which God hears the prayers of the righteous. Confession for the early church meant "open and public acknowledgment of guilt, usually in the church." James is speaking of a public confession within the congregation. Notice that confession is an essential element of the healing. Within a community, confession purifies the community of believers and the sins that are holding them back from godliness. And forgiveness leads to healing of the sick. "Without confession and forgiveness there will be no healing.”

To make a few things clear: James is not saying that sickness is always caused by sin, he is not saying that “if you only pray hard enough and if you are only obedient enough you will be healed” These are both dangerous lies that can lead us to feel doubly burdened. Now just that we deal with the physical challenge but also the belief it is because of a lack of faith.

But if we don’t find the root of our issues then we will continue to deal with difficulties until we face them. Many of you will remember Boeing had issues with their planes a few years ago where several of them crashed because of a malfunction in the GPS. But this was an issue that occurred because they decided to cut corners on their planes, something that Boeing had started to do many years before. See, they had started to outsource where they got materials for their planes, and instead of making new planes they would just try to upgrade old planes. But this only created more problems rather than fix them. So they could fix the issue that caused some of their planes to crash, and they could get them to fly again. But because they didn’t fix the heart issue they continued to have problems.

A righteous person is anyone who has confessed their sins, who has accountability to others, and whom lives obediently in their everyday life. The prayer of a righteous person does not come seeking personal gain, but comes desiring the will of God. Therefore us coming with integrity reveals our faith that we have faith in God’s Word.

We must be sure of 2 things: 1. That the prayer of faith, especially in connection with God's people uniting in prayer, can heal and can have real effectiveness. 2. What God desires to heal is not always the physical.

Prayer reminds us that we are dependent on the Lord

The word that James uses for suffering is to “endure affliction”. It is not focused so much on the suffering itself as it is with the distress that suffering causes. You could think of it as “doubting” or “distress”. What he is directing them to do is pray when things feel out of control and when you feel overwhelmed. We don’t like to admit our weakness, we don’t like dependence on others. But the first thing James tells them is, “when you feel overwhelmed, give your burdens to God.”

James is pointing back to the difficult situations that he has already told them about and calling them not to complain or become angry or pretend that it doesn't exist, but rather they should pray to the Lord. They should have faith in the Lord to help them in their sorrow.

Then James directs them to the times of which they have joy, there they should also go to the Lord and praise Him. He deserves worship when He has blessed us so that we may remember Him in difficult times. Prayer is necessary for spiritual strength to endure the trial with a godly spirit.

"Giving praise to God, like our petitions for sustenance in times of trouble, should be a regular part of our lifestyle."

"Give thanks in all circumstances" both in trials and in blessing

Then in v. 14 he calls them to pray when they are sick, a word meaning “weak”. Which could be mental ability, spiritual conditional, physical appearance, conscience.

The result of prayer is always dependent on the will of God to heal in a particular case...healing then is a sign of the complete saving work of God: the demise of sin and death and the restoration of the body on the last day...all healing stimulates hope in the God who will one day remove all causes of sickness and death.

Believers who struggle with illness can, indeed, be confidence that God will heal them in the end...it is, as it were, part of their salvation itself, guaranteed them as a gift of grace by the Lord.

But in the same way we are to confess to one another, we are also to see the church as the body of Christ, a group that we are called to be dependent on in our suffering and difficulties.

Prayer reminds us of the Lord’s power

The Lord’s power to heal

This is best seen by the example of Elijah, who "was a man just like us." Even though something amazing happened as a result of his prayer, the focus is on the Lord who did it and not on the power and strength of Elijah. In fact, it was Elijah's recognition that he was unable to do it that allowed him to have faith that God could.

The Lord’s power to forgive sins and to save

(From TGC article) "God effortlessly parted the Red Sea for Israel to escape Egypt, but it took nothing less than the death of God’s Son to achieve the forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 10:10-14). The fact is that it was far easier for Jesus to heal the man than it was to forgive him."

The Lord’s power to change our hearts

Who do you trust?

James has reminded us that of God’s faithfulness, that He answers our prayers, He gives an example of the prayers of Elijah that God answered. Now the question is, do you have faith that the Lord can do this work? Are you confidence that the Lord is faithful to His promises? Will you trust in your hard moments that God will sustain you? Are you confidence that He is sufficient in your weakness?

Have you ever thought about how Jesus had to have faith that His Father would be sufficient in His human weakness? Jesus went 40 days and nights without food and water, He could have died but He was confident His Father was sufficient. Jesus dealt with sickness and pain, He dealt with exhaustion, He dealt with poverty. Jesus had the same worries that we do, and you know what, He didn’t always have his prayers answered immediately. While Jesus was whipped and had lashes all over Him, He could have easily prayed to His Father and had them healed.

James shows us that "human beings are not the masters of their own fate, and faith cannot be mixed with delusions of our strength, as the double-minded among James's hearers had attempted. Believers must cultivate their trust in the word of God and do what it says. In spite of deep personal struggle....we must persevere in faith."