The Book of James (page 9)

STUDY INDEX

Page 1 Introduction and Outline; Trials are a means of growth

Page 2 Godly wisdom; Trials affect everyone; Differences between trials and temptations

Page 3 Hearing the Word and doing it; Being impartial

Page 4 Professing faith and proving it

Page 5 The tongue

Page 6 Earthly wisdom; Sinful behavior

Page 7 Speaking evil; Presumptuous living; Selfish wealth

Page 8 Patience and endurance; Simple honesty

Page 9 Prayer

Page 10 Converting the sinner

 

Prayer

"Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? 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: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." (5:13-18).

Prayer is simply talking to God. Throughout the Scriptures, the act of prayer is described by several terms: (1) Calling upon God. David the Psalmist said, "I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech."; (2) Calling on the name of the Lord. Peter echoed Joel's prophecy during his message on the day of Pentecost, "And it shall come to pass, that whosover shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 2:21; see also Genesis 4:26, Acts 22:16, Romans 10:13). (3) Crying unto the Lord. David exclaimed in Psalms 3:4, "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill." (4) Lifting up the soul. "Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul," David cried, "O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed.... Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach my thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day." (Psalms 25:1-2,4-5). (5) Seeking the Lord. Isaiah the prophet said, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." (Isaiah 55:6). (6) Coming unto the throne of grace. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16). (7). Drawing near to God. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith," the writer of Hebrews said. (Hebrews 10:22). James also voiced this promise, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." (James 4:8).

God's power to accomplish many of His goals and purposes is released only through the fervent and effectual prayers of His people. If we fail to pray, we may actually be hindering the accomplishment of God's redemptive purpose, both for ourselves as individuals and for the church as a whole. Leonard Ravenhill lamented in his book Why Revival Tarries, "No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shopwindow to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off. Poverty stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere."

There are several requirements which must be met for our prayers to effective.

1. We must have true faith. For our prayers to be answered, we must exhibit true faith in God to hear and answer our petition. "What things soever ye desire," Jesus said, "when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24). James tells us, "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." (James 1:6-7). To the other extreme, we see several cases in the Gospels where Jesus or His followers could not work because of unbelief. When Jesus was teaching in the land of His birth, Matthew states, "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Matthew 13:58; Mark 6:5-6). When the disciples could not cast the demon from the possessed man, they inquired of the Lord why they could not cast him out. "Because of your unbelief," Jesus responded. "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17:20). It should be our prayer with tears, as the man with the demon possessed child, "Lord, help thou mine unbelief!" (Mark 9:24), for it is our inbelief which hinders so much the work of the Lord. God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, so promises Paul to the Ephesians. But here is the key..... "according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20). We are His hands and His feet. If we do not believe in our Savior, then we make the gospel of none effect, and His work is hindered.

2. Prayer must be offered in the name of Jesus. Jesus stated, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." (John 14:13-14). To pray in the name of Christ implies two things on the part of the believer. (1) You are praying in harmony with God's will, and not for any thing contrary to Christ's character or to the Word of God. (2) You desire, through the answered prayer, that God would be glorified.

3. You must pray for the perfect will of God. The apostle John wrote, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us" (1 John 5:14). Jesus touched on this in His model pray, or The Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." We see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane desiring God's will above His own, even in facing death. "Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me," Jesus declared in His Gethesemane prayer, "nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." (Mark 14:36). John has proclaimed, declaring confidence in Christ, that He hears us if we ask any thing according to His will. In most instances, we can determine God's will through what He has revealed through the Scriptures. And we can be assured that any person who prays desiring God's will to be accomplished, who desires that God be glorified, and who comes before God in faith, will have His prayer heard and answered. This thought of desiring God, His will and His righteousness, above our own needs can be found in Jesus' words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33).

4. We must not give up! Jesus began His parable of the widow and judge, "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." The word "faint", from the Greek word "ekkakeo," means "exhausted, wearied out, or utterly spiritless." To the Colossians, Paul wrote, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." And to the Thessalonians, Paul penned, "Pray without ceasing." (Colossians 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). In the parable, the widow repeatedly came before the Judge asking to avenge an adversary until the Judge grew weary of seeing her. Jesus' teaching on the widow and the judge is not to imply that God is not caring and simply answers prayer because He grows tired of us repeatedly coming to Him and asking for the same thing. The parable's purpose is merely to teach us the value of not giving up, of perseverance and persistence in prayer (Luke 18:1-7). This is echoed in Jesus' teaching in Matthew, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8).

"Ask..... Seek..... Knock" implies perseverance in prayer. These three verbs imply a continual action, and not something that is only done one time. Asking denotes a consciousness of need and a belief that God hears you as you ask. Seeking implies a desire to find something, often leaving other tasks undone as you search. Knocking implies a desire to see God answer, even if He does not respond quickly, just as you would knock on the door of a neighbor's home more than once.

Matthew Henry penned in his commentary, "Prayer is the appointed means for obtaining what we need. Pray; pray often; make a business of prayer, and be serious and earnest in it. Ask, as a beggar asks alms. Ask, as a traveller asks the way. Seek, as for a thing of value that we have lost; or as the merchantman that seeks goodly pearls. Knock, as he that desires to enter into the house knocks at the door. Sin has shut and barred the door against us; by prayer we knock. Whatever you pray for, according to the promise, shall be given you, if God see it fit for you, and what would you have more? This is made to apply to all that pray aright; every one that asketh receiveth, whether Jew or Gentile, young or old, rich or poor, high or low, master or servant, learned or unlearned, all are alike welcome to the throne of grace, if they come in faith. It is explained by a comparison taken from earthly parents, and their readiness to give their children what they ask. Parents are often foolishly fond, but God is all-wise; he knows what we need, what we desire, and what is fit for us. Let us never suppose our heavenly Father would bid us pray, and then refuse to hear, or give us what would be hurtful.

"In a day of affliction nothing is more seasonable than prayer. The spirit is then most humble, and the heart is broken and tender. It is necessary to exercise faith and hope under afflictions; and prayer is the appointed means for obtaining and increasing these graces. Observe, that the saving of the sick is not ascribed to the anointing with oil, but to prayer. In a time of sickness it is not cold and formal prayer that is effectual, but the prayer of faith. The great thing we should beg of God for ourselves and others in the time of sickness is, the pardon of sin. Let nothing be done to encourage any to delay, under the mistaken fancy that a confession, a prayer, a minister's absolution and exhortation, or the sacrament, will set all right at last, where the duties of a godly life have been disregarded. To acknowledge our faults to each other, will tend greatly to peace and brotherly love. And when a righteous person, a true believer, justified in Christ, and by his grace walking before God in holy obedience, presents an effectual fervent prayer, wrought in his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, raising holy affections and believing expectations and so leading earnestly to plead the promises of God at his mercy-seat, it avails much. The power of prayer is proved from the history of Elijah. In prayer we must not look to the merit of man, but to the grace of God. It is not enough to say a prayer, but we must pray in prayer. Thoughts must be fixed, desires must be firm and ardent, and graces exercised. This instance of the power of prayer, encourages every Christian to be earnest in prayer. God never says to any of the seed of Jacob, Seek my face in vain. Where there may not be so much of miracle in God's answering our prayers, yet there may be as much of grace."

The early church was a praying church. No gyms or fellowship halls here! And the people of the Thessalonica testified concerning them, "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." (Acts 17:6). Could it be, that with so many churches, we see so little results because the church no longer prays? The supper room is full, the upper room is empty. Let the modern church return to the methods of the early church and we too will see God move as in days of old. And people will say of us, "These have turned the world upside down!" True, God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think, but the key is, "according to the power that worketh in us." (Ephesians 3:20). Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, "and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not", and then "he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain."

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