Praying with Power
Text: James 5:13-20
August 23, 2005, Dave Philips
Several years ago, a theological seminary in Texas was in serious financial trouble. Their president called the faculty together to pray. One professor prayed, “Lord, you say in your word that the cattle on a thousand hills are yours. Could you sell the cattle on just one of those hills and send us the money?” The next day a letter arrived from a Texas rancher who had sold one of his herds and sent them the money.
Coincidence? Maybe. But why is it that coincidences like this happen so often when God’s people pray? Archbishop Temple once said, “When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't pray, they don't.”
It used to be popular a generation ago to say, “Prayer is really a superstition that we no longer need. When people were ignorant and didn’t know about the forces that controlled the world, it was natural to think that by praying they could influence the weather, heal the sick, and increase the fertility of their flocks. Nowadays we know through our study of the sciences of meteorology, medicine, and biology that prayer has nothing to do with controlling such forces. Therefore, since we can now control such things through our modern technology, we have no further use for prayer.” Prayer is a superstitious addendum to a scientific world view, and addenda like these we don’t need.
But a couple of things have happened in our generation to make us wonder if this kind of faith in science and technology might not be a little bit too optimistic. We have an incredible technology! We can do amazing things with it. Why, we can destroy human life several times over! And that, of course, is one of the problems with our possession of a powerful technology: we can control amazing forces, but who’s going to control us?
Second, we used to say that the more we study the laws of science, the clearer the universe becomes. But now we’re saying, “The more we study science, the more mysterious everything becomes.” The more we learn, the more we realize how little we know, and the more we realize the incredible depths of our own ignorance in view of the infinite mysteries of the universe.
Was there ever a time, then, when we needed prayer more than we need it today? Was there ever a time when we were more aware of our own helplessness in the face of overwhelming and uncontrollable powers? Was there ever a time when we felt as keenly as we do today the need for a relationship with a wise and loving Creator?
Dr. Alexis Carrel, a physician who won a Nobel Prize in physiology, said, “Prayer is the most powerful form of energy that one can generate. . . . Only in prayer do we achieve that complete harmonious assembly of mind, body and spirit which gives the frail human being its unshakable strength. When we pray, we link ourselves with the inexhaustible motive that spins the universe.”
With such a powerful force available and so many overwhelming problems confronting us, we need to learn the power of prayer. James points us to this power. He teaches us that it’s okay to pray for ourselves. But once we’ve learned to pray for ourselves, we discover that the power of prayer is too big to keep to ourselves. And finally, James teaches us that there’s no mystique surrounding prayer that prevents ordinary people from learning to pray. So, I’m suggesting three divisions for our thoughts: first, prayer is for me. Second, prayer is too much just for me. And finally, prayer is for me as I am.
PRAYER IS FOR ME.
I’ve heard many Christians say, “Oh, I never pray for myself -- that would be selfish!” But where did we get such a notion? It’s impossible to find any justification for this notion in the Bible. The Psalms are full of prayers that go on and on about the personal needs of the psalmists. Jesus had no hesitation about praying for himself 1 even though we might think that as the Son of God he had no need to pray for himself. And James starts us off by giving us three circumstances when it’s good to pray for ourselves: when we’re hurting, when we’re happy, and when we’re sick.
We pray when we’re hurting. “Are any among you suffering? They should pray,” says James. Sometimes our pain is the first opportunity God has with us. A woman I know began to pray to God when a friend of hers was killed. Her depression and grief drove her to her knees, and God graciously made himself known to her. She became a powerful Christian with a powerful witness. God is full of compassion for us when we’re hurting, and it’s good and proper to pray for ourselves in times of personal need.
We pray when we’re happy. “Are any among you cheerful?” James asks. “They should sing songs of praise.” The focus here is still personal. When things are going well for us and we’re happy, the natural response is a prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God.
And we pray when we’re sick. James tells us to call the elders of the church to come and pray for us when we’re sick. And let me tell you, if you haven’t had five or ten elders crowding into your bedroom or hospital room to anoint you with oil, to lay on hands and to pray for you when you’re sick, you’ve missed one of life’s awesome experiences! Maybe it sounds kind of weird to you -- but ask the person who’s been on the receiving end of that kind of prayer what he or she thinks about its power! My experience has been that when the group of Christians prays for a sick person, there is always a blessing, and sometimes there are amazing healings.
PRAYER IS TOO MUCH JUST FOR ME.
But while prayer is for me, it’s also too much just for me. It’s okay for the focus of prayer to be personal, but it’s not long before we realize that prayer is too wonderful -- and too powerful -- to be kept to ourselves. And here we take note once again of one of the constant tendencies of the New Testament: God meets us one on one and immediately begins to move us toward other people. A Christian may learn to pray out of personal need. But his or her prayer life will be immature and incomplete until it breaks out of the purely personal into prayer with others and active intercession for others. Our prayers sour on us if we pray only for ourselves and by ourselves.
Almost without our noticing it, personal prayer has turned into group prayer. We have a personal need in sickness, so we call the elders, and before we know it our personal burdens are shared by several friends. That’s as it should be! Jesus Christ is building his Church, and prayer is one of his most powerful tools.
Now, notice how James teaches us to build a community of prayer. First, he says, “Confess your sins to one another.” In traditional Catholicism, this verse is used as a justification for regular confession to the priest. But that’s really not all that James is saying. He’s not just talking about some formalized confession to a priest, nor some sort of stylized emotional catharsis through a T-group like we did back in the sixties and seventies, but rather the healthy, ongoing process of keeping channels of communication open in the Body of Christ.
Your primary grouping in the Body of Christ is your own family. Can you admit to the your family members when you make a mistake and need their forgiveness? Parents, are you able to admit to your children when you make a mistake and need their forgiveness? And dads and moms, if you don’t take the lead in modeling this kind of openness, where are your children going to learn it?
Your secondary grouping in the Body of Christ is your friends and partners in ministry, your fellow workers in the Sunday School or on a committee, the members of your fellowship group. Are you able to admit your mistakes to them and ask them to pray for you?
James says, “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” Why doesn’t he just say, “Pray for one another so that you may be healed”, period? Why confession first? Is there something about being reconciled to one another that enhances healing? Or is there something about unresolved conflict that hurts our prayers and blocks the healing process?
I had the experience several years ago of finding myself at odds with a fellow minister who was active in my congregation and whom I loved and respected tremendously. There was something between us that I couldn’t put my finger on. It came out one day when we were having lunch together. He told me he sensed that I had no respect for his work. He felt that I slighted him and asked him to do work in the church that he thought was second rate and not what he was gifted to do. He’d been sitting on these feelings for months, and it had been hurting our relationship and work together. I had no idea that he had been harboring those angry feelings. I asked his forgiveness, we were reconciled, and our relationship and work together took a great leap forward.
I believe the reason James links confession to one another with prayer for one another -- and puts confession before prayer -- is the same reason that Jesus tells us not to offer our gifts to God at worship until we’ve been reconciled to our neighbors.2
Friends and neighbors, the summary of the Christian gospel is to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves.3 I’m willing to bet that if your prayer life leaves something to be desired these days, it’s likely you’ve got a relational problem. And your prayer life is simply not going to take off unless you get that problem taken care of. So, go to the sister or brother you need to be reconciled to and confess your sin to them that there may be healing and the work of the Church may go forward.
As I say these words, I’m not aware of any major conflicts going on in this congregation. Nobody has come to me and said, “You’d better preach about this.” But I’ll bet my last nickel that there is someone out there who is saying to himself or herself, “Uh oh! He’s preaching this to me!” I used to wonder how Festo Kivengere, that great African saint, could come into group of Christians he’d never met and put his finger on every one of the relational problems they were having. I’ve concluded that Festo didn’t have a sixth sense. He came to realize through long experience that all those relational problems are usually simmering under the surface of any Christian group.
So, confess your sins to one another. Do that first, for that’s the will of our Lord Jesus. And then pray for one another that the Body of Christ may be continually healed and renewed.
Prayer is too much just for me. I need to share it with my friends in the Body of Christ that there may be healing, and joy, and the release of tremendous power.
PRAYER IS FOR ME AS I AM.
And finally, prayer is for me as I am. Prayer is for me just as I am. You don’t have to learn a special language, you don’t have to get a graduate degree in prayer, you don’t have to be a sophisticate in religion to learn how to pray with great power. In fact, cleverness and sophistication in the matter of prayer often seems to weaken the impact of prayer, because clever and sophisticated people frequently know masses of information about religion but have forgotten how to trust God.
James makes a point of telling us that prayer is for ordinary people. His example of the power of the prayers of ordinary people is the prophet Elijah. Elijah was a person with passions like our own, James tells us. Have you ever gotten really down in the dumps when your prayers seem to be bouncing off the ceiling? The next time you’re down in the dumps, take a look around. You’ll see the footprints of the prophet Elijah. Elijah explored the dumps a long time before you got there! Read I Kings 18 and 19 and watch Elijah slide from the elation of his victory over the 450 prophets of Baal to the depths of despair when Jezebel threatened to kill him.
Elijah was no super-human. He was just an ordinary guy. And yet, the impact of the prayer of that ordinary guy! The prayers of that plain man turned Israel upside down. So often when you read the history of the Christian church in the times of great renewal, you wonder how on earth such power was generated, and you trace the beginnings of the movement back to one lone Christian on his or her knees. And then that ordinary Christian is joined by another, and then another, and the power of God is released.
I was sitting with a group of friends one evening speculating about why the nineteenth century in this country was a time of such intense Christian faith. What made Abraham Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson, and others like them such devout people? And we recalled that the late days of the eighteenth century and early days of the nineteenth century were abysmal days for the church in this country.
Voltaire, the French skeptic, was very influential on American university campuses in the late eighteenth century, and he said that every sensible and honorable person must hold the Christian sect in horror. Voltaire predicted the end of Christianity in his generation. At Dartmouth an anti-Christianity play was produced by the students without objection from the faculty. At Princeton there were only half a dozen Christian students who were not part of the filthy speech movement on campus. The Christian group at Princeton was so unpopular they had to meet in secret and keep their minutes in code. At Yale most of the students were materialists and anti-God. George Washington thought that things were so grim in America in 1796 that another revolution was likely.
What happened to turn things around? Two Baptist ministers in Boston whose names do not appear in most history books started what they called a “Concert of Prayer”. These two obscure and ordinary men began to pray together and invited others to join them. And from the prayers of those two came the great revival movements that swept from the New England states across the Alleghenies and through the frontier changing the face of this country and the character of our people.4
It can happen again! When ordinary people like ourselves begin to pray together, tremendous power is released. So pray! Pray for yourselves without hesitation. Pray with one another and for one another that the Body of Christ may be healed and renewed. And pray so that the plain prayers of God’s ordinary people may release God’s astonishing power to heal the world that Christ died to save.