Day 12: James 5:13–20 - Gospel-centered Prayer

"He who runs from God in the morning will hardly find him at the close of the day; nor will he who begins with the world and the vanities thereof, in the first place, be very capable of walking with God all the day after. It is he who finds God in his closet that will carry the savor of him into his house, his shop, and his more open conversation." - John Bunyan

Prayer is simply meeting with God, it is finding Him - it's the "end" in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  James in his final words to his people, he urges them to pray and to seek prayer.  Even in this exhortation, James is about keeping the main thing the main thing.  Even when people are sick, he still wants his people to know that it's never not about sin and our need for forgiveness.  Why - because Jesus is the greatest gift and greater than any gift that we can receive from Him and nothing should hinder the connection we have in Him.  We're never to lose sight of the main point of prayer - to meet with God and finding Him, no matter our plight and the plight of those who are dear to us.  Everything in our lives is meaningful and we're never to lose heart - He is always up to something...and the point of will always be the Gospel.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28

God will take His people through many trials and tribulations to bestow the greatest gift man can receive - more of Himself!  This is the point of the Gospel-centered life.  In all our trials, the goal is less self and more of Jesus.  So, before we start praying away suffering so quickly, Jesus teaches us how to pray - more Him and more His will.  This means that when we come along side people with cancer, incurable disease, failing marriages, faulty finances, etc., we point them to Jesus as the divine healer and provider, and more importantly - the love of our lives.  The question we must ask ourselves is this: do we pray the Gospel above all other needs?  What we pray for is what we believe is supreme.

Posted by Henry Jung on 6/12/2016

Comments

Personally I have an aversion to anything that's anywhere close to what the prosperity gospel teaches. So when we see the verses say that anyone sick should seek prayer and he will be saved, I cringe a little.

I think generally speaking, abuses and hyper-focusing of things to the subtraction of the fact that Christ is most worthy of pursuit are what makes me (and others!) pull back from these ideas. Health and wealth, gifts of the spirit, obedience for blessings, etc are both mentioned by the Bible but also very widely abused.

And being aware of this, I still refrain from such ideas. Certainly Henry's closing point about praying the gospel over every other need gives me relief. But I don't know. I still have uncertainties.

God may heal and God may not. A "good" person (no one was good except Jesus) can have the most miserable section of life (Job is the poster child). We can't simply say the "bad" outcome was because of disobedience/sin/lack of prayer. God will do what gives him supreme glory.

Maybe some others can follow up on this discussion.

Chris Moon on 6/14/2016 at 12:36 AM

If the "main thing" in our relationship with Jesus is getting to know Him and to enjoy Him, yes, I'd think that prayer is pretty important. The way to converse with God is to pray and to talk with Him. To walk in the garden with God talking over everything in life. To plead with Him about the season of trials. To thank Him for all the goodness that He brings. Elijah was just a man says verse 17, but through fervent prayer, he was able to change the weather. Faithful prayer can move mountains.

I agree with Chris that God is the only person that can answer a prayer, but He does it in the only way He knows how, for our good. This does not always line up with what we think is good. Whenever I hear about people praying that a terminally ill person not die, I tilt my head a little bit. Everyone will die....eventually. I know several people whose prayers did not work in these situations, and this was the basis of them turning away from God. They say things like, "God doesn't listen to my prayers. He doesn't care. If he cared at all or loved me at all, He would have kept my [insert sick loved one here] from dying." Good people have bad things happen to them; bad people have good things happen to them. God is the only one that can determine how our fates turn out. BUT with 20/20 hindsight, even if things turn out bad in our eyes, if our belief is that God is good and He is loving, we will recognize that in the end, it was for our good. There was a reason. If anything, your faithful prayer and pleading with God will build your trust in His will.

Diana Lim on 6/17/2016 at 8:00 AM