FAITH: Calls Us to Pray
Study of James
Week 9
I remember when my children were young and leaving for school. I would shout out a laundry list of “dos and don’ts” as they closed the car door, hoping they would remember it all, praying some of it would stick!
Here we find James doing the same thing. He has been providing various instructions to Christians seemingly in random order. However, with each challenge, he was giving a description of what their faith in Christ should look like.
How appropriate that he closes his letter addressing faith and how it calls us to pray.
“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray…”(v13)
“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders...and let them pray over him..(v14)
“The prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick..” (v15)
“Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you might be healed..’”(v16)
“Elijah…prayed earnestly...” (v17)
Yes, James is calling the faithful to pray and like the mom shouting out final instructions, he is fervent and explicit in his request.
So, what is James asking? Let’s dig a bit and I think you’ll be surprised!
Pray (proseuxomai), in the Greek, means to “exchange wishes,” in this case, exchange our wants for His wants or ideas, as He imparts faith (pistis) to the believer. This word, pray (proseuxomai) is used over 80 times in the New Testament.
Ironically, when we pray, we are not talking God into choosing our ideas and implementing them. We are not giving Him our wishlist. Although, if I were honest, I have thrown a few thoughts at God before hoping He would grab them and thank me for my creative solutions!
No, when we pray, as our faith calls us to do, when we proseuxomai, we are asking God, our very loving, all powerful God, to exchange our thoughts for His. Not the other way around.
We pray in faith for healing.
We pray in faith for provision.
We pray in faith for salvation.
We pray in faith for direction.
We pray in faith for Him to move on our behalf and do what only He can do.
As Christians, we are called to pray.
James reminds these Christians that faith calls us to pray.
In addition, the last two verses in the book of James closes with a final important message.
“My brothers, if anyone among you strays from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that the one who has turned a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” (5:19-20)
That word, know, in the Greek is ginosko, “knowing through personal experience.”
Let’s refresh that verse.
“Let him know (through personal experience) that the one who has turned a sinner from error…. will save his soul from death…”
James admonishes us to restore those who have wandered from their faith by sharing from our own personal experience, not our perfect lives, not by judging or thinking more highly of ourselves. No, but by sharing the grace with which we have been given.
That is the call of the Gospel, the very foundation of our faith.
jeannaswann
#nowuntohimwhoisable
Question for discussion: (your email is never posted or shared)
If faith calls us to pray, what is one area where you are praying in faith, and like the farmer, waiting, watering and sowing? (relationally, financially, spiritually, etc)