The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in James 5:13-16,
"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
James has said much about faith in this letter. James informs us that faith gets tested, James 1:3. It is this testing which leads to maturity in our walk with the Lord. He has said that only those of faith will receive anything from God, as in the pursuit of wisdom, James 1:5-7. James tells us God has chosen those who are of faith, James 2:5, to inherit the kingdom he has promised. He has defined the kind of faith that God is looking for when he offers his invitation of salvation, James 2:14-26. There he tells us God is looking for the kind that leads to action, as with Abraham and Rahab. "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.", verse 18.
Here in James 5:13-16, James tells us that the prayer offered in faith will make the sick well. "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." I used to think that if I could only pray with enough faith, I could persuade God to heal anyone. It had appeared to me that this is exactly what James was saying. There are many other passages in the Scriptures that appear to support that thought: The Lord told the woman who had an issue of bleeding for twelve years, "your faith has healed you.", when she was healed by touching his cloak. Matthew 9:22. Jesus told blind Bartimaeus, "Go... your faith has healed you.", Mark tells us, "Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road." Mark 10:52. There are many examples in Scripture of faith having an impact on someone being healed by God, as well as relief from demon possession and other things. Paul speaks of gifts of healing from the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:9.
My further reading of the Scriptures, however, brought some maturity to my thinking. Where at first I was convinced that the prayer of a man of faith could always bring healing from God, I read of Paul's advice to Timothy, who had been suffering from stomach ailments, "frequent Illnesses". Paul told Timothy, "use a little wine". Why didn't Paul just pray for Timothy to bring healing to him? Why the medicinal advice? Then I read of Epaphroditus, a man the church in Philippi had sent to help Paul during his imprisonment, Philippians 2:19-30. He had become sick in his service to Paul, even to the point of death. Paul says God intervened, "had mercy on him". However, the event led Paul into such an anxious state that he hurriedly sent him back home. What was the source of Paul's anxiety? Epaphroditus had risked his life in his service to Paul on behalf of the church in Philippi. Clearly, Paul was anxious because he couldn't know the outcome of Epaphroditus' illness. If it was guaranteed that the prayer of a man of faith will always bring healing, Paul would have had no cause for anxiety.
From a very practical point of view, I know of no one, who has not otherwise met their death, who has not eventually succumbed to an illness. All die. If guaranteed healing was something God has committed himself to in behalf of those of faith, then either no one has had faith or the presumption upon God is unwarranted.
I have had to adjust my understanding from what I started with. Apparently, healing is not a guaranteed task that God performs every time when we ask him in faith. In the kindness of his glorious grace, God may grant healing, and, based on what James tells us here in his letter, a healing that would not otherwise occur were a faithful person not to pray. Often, it is the prayer of a faithful person that brings God's miraculous intervention of healing when it does occurs. But for us to presume upon God that he will automatically and always do the things we ask, even when we feel we have the appropriate level of faith, is the exact kind of presumption that James speaks against James 4:13-15:
"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'"
The truth is that it is God's will we all die. There will be a few who will not experience death at the time of the Lord's coming, and of course, Enoch and Elijah didn't experience death. But generally speaking, even for those who have been received by God into his family, it is his will we die. If a violent end, as in an accident or whatever doesn't take us, illness eventually will. The prayer of a person of faith may postpone death or alleviate suffering, but in every case of miraculous healing, it is always subject to God's will. Never should we assume it is not our time God has decided to take us. And, as in the case of Job, who knows? God may be up to something we are not anticipating...
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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