NIV: 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.
The Message: Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out.
What exactly is James telling us here?
- If you are sick, call for the elders of the church;
- The elders of the church should pray over you;
- The elders should anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord;
- Prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well;
- The Lord will raise the sick person up;
- If the sick person has sinned, he will be forgiven.
These are the verses that are always offered up when someone gets cancer, has a major operation, is unwell for any reason. Sometimes the sick person is healed, and sometimes not.
So how do you know, really know, when someone is going to be healed and when someone is not? How do you pray with faith, a real faith where you trust God for the outcome, believing in healing, not a wishy washy prayer where you ask God for healing "if it is His will" and then use that as a cop out if the person is not healed? Is it your lack of faith when the person remains unhealed or is it because you didn't pray with enough faith, for long enough, hard enough, often enough?
These are the questions most people ask themselves. After all, why does God heal one person and not another? God moves in answer to prayer so what differentiates the success of one prayer from the failure of another when both are offered up in faith? What really makes the difference?
Ask in faith
It is no good asking God for something when you don't really believe He can do whatever it is that you are asking, or that if He can, He will choose to do so for you. But what exactly is faith? How do you "get it"? How can you have a strong faith, a deep faith rather than one that vanishes when you hit problems, when things go wrong, when life doesn't turn out as you wish?
Paul tell us in Hebrews 11:1 that "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. " (NKJV). It's when you instinctively know there is a God, despite not having any evidence, and you place your trust in Him. When I look around, and see the beauty of the world around me, the lush green hills (I have to live on one of the most beautiful counties in England, Shropshire, God's own county and one which many people don't even know exists!) then I see the handiwork of God wherever I look. On the drive to take my youngest to school there are amazing sunrises, the early morning mist in fields is awesome, the sound of the birds singing, which I can hear even here in my office, all to me are proof that there is a God. How could such beauty, such amazing things be unless there was a God who created them all in the first place? I just don't believe for one minute that we are here as a result of chance, a big bang that just happened for no reason. After all, what caused the big bang in the first place if there was nothing here to begin with?
Faith is also a belief and trust that God is in control of everything, that no matter what happens, that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28, NIV). Something that is not always easy to hang on to when your entire world is crumbling around you.
For instance, my husband has had severe depression and anxiety for a number of years now and a close friend has been ill for even longer, so where is God in all this? Why are they not both healed? Numerous prayers have been offered up for both of them, there are good days, bad days, but both are still ill. I don't know the answer to this, I don't know why neither of them is healed, but I am trusting God. Maybe the answer is "not yet", maybe the answer is "no". But then you have to ask why a loving and merciful God would choose not to heal someone who is in chronic pain a good deal of the time, or one who spends many hours wondering what the point of it all is and thinking they would be better off dead.
Nevertheless, we are told to ask in faith, and like the father with the demon possessed son, all I can say is "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief " (Mark 9:24, NIV)
Persevere
Keep on asking, keep on praying, seeking God:
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
He said: In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!" Luke 18:2-5 NIV
Don't just mutter a quick prayer and leave it at that but keep persevering, keep asking, keep knocking on heaven's door. If it really matters, if it is something you truly want with all of your heart, then you will not give up, no matter how long it may take. Be like the persistent widow who kept nagging at the judge until he finally gave way. Nag God until you get an answer!
God hears every prayer offered up in faith, every single one, and He answers each and every one of them too. It may take time, it may not be an instantaneous response, but we will hear an answer to every prayer. After all, if a day is as a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is as a day (2 Peter 3:8), then around 15 minutes to God is the equivalent of 10 yearss to us! So no wonder we have to wait a long time to get the answers to some prayers.
God's will
This is like when my children were little and "needed" so many things at Christmas time. They needed a Playstation, they needed a new computer, they needed a DS, games, toys, Lego, a bike, or whatever. And whilst we would have loved to give them everything they asked for, that would not have been the right thing to do (even if we had had the money!). If you give a child everything they ask for, when they ask for it, then pretty soon you have a selfish child who gives no thought for anyone else, takes everything for granted and assumes that they will always get what they want in life.
Well, it is kind of like that with prayer. God has promised to supply all of our needs:
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus Philippians 4:19 (NIV)
But there is a vast difference between "needs" and "wants" as my children find out every Christmas! It's all very well praying for that new car, the promotion, the pay rise and whatever, but are these things you need or just something you want? Are you actually praying in line with God's will or your own?
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us— whatever we ask— we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV)
It is, as always, a case of trusting God no matter what. Believing on Him that our prayers will be answered, that we will receive the healing or whatever we have asked for and waiting on Him for the timing. Not always an easy thing to do when a loved one is dying, or seriously ill, when you've lost your job and can't provide for your family, when your home is about to be repossessed, when the marriage you longed for is falling apart before your eyes, or the desperately hoped for children never appear.
I don't know the answers. I don't know why some people are healed and others are not, why some suffer hardship and others seemingly have a gifted life. I don't know why there are catastrophes, disasters, plane crashes and so on, why there is such suffering in the world, such misery. I know that man has a large part to play in this, wanting to keep natural resources for himself, trying to build up riches and wealth, power in this world. Then you have the whole other question of original sin and the devil. "I don't know" seems to be my answer to a lot of questions, all the ones I am storing up in my head to ask God when I get to heaven.
What I do know is that I can trust God no matter what is going on in my life and the lives of others, that He is an omniscient, omnipotent, awesome and amazing god, one who loves me even more that I can imagine. He is at work even now in my life and the lives of others, He is amazing and wonderful, and I am at a loss to know how people manage without God in their lives
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