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James 5:16-18
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
New International Version (NIV)
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“I like to think that we pray for each other.” My friend who is a known person of prayer expressed her thoughts about Christian community. What do we do that reveals our community to be different from the world around us? Is it the steeple on the building that reveals who we are? Or maybe that we put on our Sunday best? Don’t get me wrong. I love the steeple and I hear my mom’s voice telling me to dress nicely for church. These things do not make us a Christian community. When we pray we are following the practice of Christians for thousands of years. When we pray for each other we reveal that we are connected in Christ.
James envisioned a first century Christian community which lived with mutual confession of sins and intercession for each other Remember in Jerusalem and Antioch they laid hands on each other and prayed. Confession is more tricky because it involves trust. Do I trust the person I tell not to go and tell someone else? Aquinas said, “To love is to will the good for another.” If we will the good for each other, we can confess our sin not only to Christ but also to other believers. When John Ortberg confessed his sin to his mentor, his mentor said, “I have never loved you more than I do now.” This was not an affirmation of John’s sin but a promise of love which made John trust him even more.
God often heals through prayer. In the recent Mr. Rogers movie, Tom Hanks, playing the lead role, kneels beside his bed and prays for others who are hurting by name. Then he puts feet to his prayers going and acting as a healer in relationships. As one man is dying, Mr. Rogers leans over and whispers to him. “What did you ask him?” inquires the son of the ill man. “To pray for me.”
We have forty days to prepare for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter services. What shall we do? Let’s covenant to pray for each other. How shall we pray? I like the Ananias prayer, (kindly taught to us by missionaries Matt and Holly Sprink), which we introduced on Sunday: “Let the love of Christ take hold of me. Let the light of Christ shine on me. Let the love of Christ flow through me like a river.” Pray these three lines, first for yourself, then for a stranger, then for one we thought was an enemy, then for ourselves again. I wonder what God will do. We will see. I like to think that we pray for each other.
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Pray with me:
Father, we confess that one of our sins is the failure to pray for each other. We talk to and about each other, but so seldomly do we talk to you for each other. Build in our churches and Connect Groups communities which confess and intercede. We need to be healed. Give us the persistent power of Elijah who, though he was just like us, prayed earnestly with such amazing results. Your arm is not shortened. You do as you choose. We ask you to heal our brokenness in this interceding community. We believe you will in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Join us in memorizing the Word. Scripture for this week:
Matthew 5:17-18
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
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| Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan. Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week. In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year. Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.
Joyfully,
Duane
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