"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing Psalms. 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."
James 5:13-14 NKJV
Prayer is an essential ingredient to a successful life in Jesus. Without it, we are lost. Many people only pray when things become bad. After that, they go back to the occasional prayer. This is not the way God wants us to be. We need to be in daily communication with Our Lord and Chief - Jesus. Tony Evans writes, 'If you want to gauge your spiritual life, look at the thermostat setting on your prayer life.' It is so essential that we get the balance right.
Communicating with God is important when we are suffering; but, so is communicating with Him, when we are cheerful. This is the time that we need to be showing our gratitude to Jesus through praise and worship. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, '
'Rejoice always. 17 Pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks for this is the will of God, in Christ Jesus for you.'
When we are sick, James says that we are to call for the elders of the church so that they can pray and anoint us with oil. However, let us look at the meaning of this. The Greek word for sick is astheneo, which translates to 'weak'. This refers to any kind of weakness, physical or otherwise. The text means if anyone is so weak and struggling, then they should seek help from the elders who would pray for them, offering encouragement, joy - which is another meaning for anointing with oil - and refreshment. The idea was that, each church should have practical ministry in place to aid members who were weak. If they were sick and were healed, then praise God, but this was not the main purpose James was referring to. Furthermore, if it was thought that a person, who was sick, had sin in their lives, so they should confess this to the elders who could then pray accordingly, so that the person could be forgiven. However, it must be stressed that not every sickness is the result of sin being in a person's life.
So, we see how prayer is essential to a successful life in Jesus. What setting is your prayer thermostat showing? It is something that we have to work on. If you're like me, I have a tendency to drift off, possibly owing to a poor attention span. I therefore, have to concentrate or, better still, speak in tongues where I find I can manage that a little better. Probably, you are similar. It is something that is worth building on because, having a good prayer life brings great benefits.
Have a good day. Tomorrow we'll look at 1 Peter.
Copyriight 2021 Grahame Howard
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave a message