NIV: 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.
The Message: Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.
The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Absolutely awesome words and ones that I know I, for one, all too often don't appreciate.
For the thing is, we need to be living right with God, we need to get our hearts and minds focused on Him. If we do not have God in our lives, if we are not striving to be right with Him, then exactly what are we doing with out lives? What are our goals, our wishes, our desires? Is it money? Fame? Sex? Drugs? Family, work, pleasure? What is it that fills our hearts and wishes? What are we trying to achieve with the things we do each and every day? Do we long to have a deeper, more fulfilling relationship with God, to get to really know Him intimately? Do we disbelieve in any god, or higher being, preferring instead to believe the scientists who say we are the result of a big bang, a fluke, the merest chance? Or maybe we do believe in a god, but he/she/it takes the form of a tree, a statue we worship, an icon we pray to, a lucky charm we hold when things get rough, maybe a fierce god, a god who tells us that anyone who does not believe in him should be killed? Or maybe our god is our work, our bank balance, a bottle of wine?
Whatever we believe, one day we will all find out whether or not there definitely is a god. I for one, cannot understand how with all the evidence before our eyes, anyone could fail to believe in God, a God of love and mercy and faithfulness, slow to anger and quick to forgive, but there are many who would disagree with me I know.
Another part of living right with God is confessing our sins to one another. I don't believe this means going to confession once a week or however often we feel necessary to tell a priest everything we have been up to and then receive absolution after we have said nine Hail Marys or whatever. This is more about being accountable to one another having someone who you can trust absolutely, someone who will not go and tell everyone they see exactly what your deepest darkest secrets are. It's about having someone who you can confide in, who will tell you when you are going wrong, when you are sliding down the slippery slope of sin that we all go near each and every day. It's the friend who will tell you not to sleep with that man, that girl, have that next drink, go to that event/party, talk in that way to your spouse, use that language, and so on, the one who keeps an eye out for you no matter what is happening in their life and to whom you can turn when things get on top of you. It's personal accountability to someone else.
It's a case of praying for one another and with one another. Have you never seen the results of prayer? How a situation is turned around which you thought impossible, all because you or someone else prayed? I have seen attitudes change because of prayer, changes of mind, of legislation, healings, easing of pain, successful operations, finances found, catastrophes averted, all because of prayer. It truly is a powerful tool in our hands.
All too often we fail to appreciate the power of prayer, how we have direct access to God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How Jesus is seated at the right hand of God and is actively interceding on our behalf with the Father. After all, we're told in Revelation that the prayers of the saints (who are us!! And I for one find it hard to believe at times that I am considered to be one of the saints ;) ) ascend to heaven like incense:
Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Revelation 8:3-4 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.
God hears each and every one of our prayers, and each and every one of them is answered. Maybe not in the way we want, or when we want, but each one is answered. It is not a case of going before God with a shopping list of things we want, prayers we need answers to, but instead of having a very real and deep relationship with God, of going before Him to talk to Him, spend time with Him, and yes, to ask for things. But remember how it is with children and parents? How your children will come to you for things but how they will also spend time with you, just talking to you, telling you about their day. Asking about you, going to places with you, on holiday, sightseeing, shopping and so on? You don't expect your children to come to you only when they want something, so why should the relationship with you and God be any different?
If all of us Christians spend more time getting to know God and praying to Him, the world would be a far different place than it is now. Prayer is such a powerful thing, direct access to God to ask for anything we want. Of course, there is the usual caveat about whatever we ask for being in line with God's will, but if we really know God, then we will want the things He wants anyway. Yes, I know I am glossing over this area as there are many times when prayers which seem to be in line with God's will are not answered, or at least not answered in the way we want. We don't see the healing, despite all our prayers. There is a lady we have been praying for and she has cancer. We were praying for healing, and yet she is dying, and only has weeks, possibly days left. She hasn't had the healing, yet through the way she is approaching her death, she is sending out a very real and positive message to her friends and family, which is speaking volumes. There is such a peace about her and her husband as they face her approaching death that is drawing her non believing son to God.
I don't have all the answers. I don't know why some prayers seem to be answered yet others don't. But I do know that all our prayers are answered, that there is a loving God in heaven who cares for each one of us, and that the prayer of a person living right with God is something to be reckoned with.
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