“The efficiency of prayer”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Saturday, November 19, 2022

James 5:13-20 (Forward, p. 21) CEV p. 1276

Now, here we come to a famous passage about prayer and its efficiency and effectiveness, and why and how we should pray. Here James suggests a number of instances in which we should pray:

-we should pray for ourselves when we are in trouble (certainly, that covers so many situations and circumstances):

-we should ask the church leaders (elders, pastors, priests etc.) to pray for us and anoint us with holy oil when we are sick;

-when we have sinned, we should share this with others privately and ask their prayers, so that we will be healed.

In the course of these exhortations, James does emphasize two things:

-first off, the need for faith when we pray (we need to believe that it will take place. We need to have confidence in God and in His power);

-and secondly, the fact that God can use ordinary people like you and I in this ministry (here he gives the example of Elijah who was just an ordinary person, inheriting the same nature, subject to the same emotions, and liable to the same weaknesses’ as ourselves, to quote R.V.G. Tasker in his commentary on this book). In other words, he had the same doubts and hesitancies as any of us, and yet, even so, his prayers had great power.

This is summed up in verse 16b: “The prayer of an innocent person is powerful, and it can help a lot”.

Interestingly, our author, James, seems to make a frequent connection between sin and sickness, something that certainly comes up on numerous occasions elsewhere in the New Testament (see Mark 2:5-11 and 1 Corinthians 11:30 as examples).

But, as Jesus pointed out, the connection is not automatic as He said in response to His disciples’ question, “Teacher, why was this man born blind? Was it because he or his parents sinned?” (John 9:2). Jesus replied, “Neither he nor his parents sinned. He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him” (verse 3).

While this passage has much to say about prayer and its efficiency, it does seem for me to raise a disturbing, and somewhat apparent contradiction:

In verse 15 it says, “If you have faith when you pray for sick people, they will get well. The Lord will heal them, and if they have sinned, he will forgive them.” The plain sense of this seems pretty straight-forward: sinners—which include all of us—will be forgiven when we pray for their healing.

So, is this suggesting a direct cause and effect, namely that prayer for healing automatically conveys forgiveness, or, is it, as some have suggested, that the healing itself is plain evidence that the person has been forgiven by God? Certainly, Jesus seems to indicate this Himself in His healing of the paralytic (Mark 2:5-11). So, the forgiveness is not a foregone conclusion, an automatic result.

So, what about verse 20? It states, “If you turn sinners [sinners again] from the wrong way, you will save them from death, and many of their sins will be forgiven”. Many of their sins, just many, not all? This does seem to a add up, to be in accord with the previous promise, in saying that forgiveness is not automatic, but is for real in saying that only some of the sins will be forgiven, not all?

However, here the problem may actually be nothing but a question of translation. The New Revised Standard Version simply states, in that same verse, “You should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering [from the truth] will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” ‘A multitude of sins’ doesn’t suggest any limitation in the number of sins taken care of, not in the least, and the idea of ‘covering’ is perhaps even better than a simple forgiving. It has the sense of the sins being hidden from sight, from God’s sight and forgotten by Him, never to be remembered or brought up again.

And so, this passage is exalting the importance of prayer, whether for help, healing, forgiveness or restoration. Sadly, probably most of us fail to pray as much as we should, and probably do not bring before God many of the people and situation that we should. So here James exhorts us to ‘get on with the show’ and make it our business to pray, now and always. Amen.

Forward notes: “The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed” (verses 15-16).

“Being faithful in prayer is difficult. Some days, I genuinely feel heard by the Holy Spirit. I get the sense that the Spirit is present in my struggle and will give me the solution I need, if not always the solution I want. Those are gratifying experiences in prayer. But I’d be lying if I said they are the only experiences I have. Other days, my prayers feel ineffectual and constrained by my feelings of exhaustion. Despite the fact that I know better, I begin to suspect no one is listening.

“During these times, when prayer seems laborious, we need the church community to help do the work of prayer. We must live amongst our fellow Christians openly and honestly, making and hearing confessions and offering up intercessions for one another.”

Moving Forward: “Are you at a stagnant place in your prayer life? Call on others to lift you up during these difficult days.”