Jump Start # 3260

James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

I love our verse today. Prayer works. It’s more than a mental exercise to release stress. Prayer is actually talking to someone who not only does hear you, but loves you and can do something. God can do what others can’t. When the night seems so dark, the day dawns and the Lord is there.

Contextually, the passage surrounds the idea of forgiveness and healing. Often sin and sickness are connected. Often one leads to the others. The sickness of the body and the sickness of the soul have many parallels. Heal the soul first. Heal the soul through forgiveness.

The prayers to God from His children are powerful. God can do what no one else can. God can do things when we can’t be there. God can work in ways that we will never understand. Prayer should not be the last step but the first step in our walk with the Lord. Don’t exhaust all other options before you turn to prayer. Put prayer at the top of the list. Be a person of prayer. And, don’t only pray about what troubles you. Be a person of thankfulness. Be a person of praise.

In a recent Jump Start I mentioned a serious health issue facing our son Jordan. The word cancer was being used by the doctors. Appointments with oncologists who spoke of months of intense chemo were made. Plans were mapped out. A lot of fear and unknown filled our hearts. Then the family of God prayed. And, they prayed. And, they prayed. We heard from hundreds and hundreds all over the country who said that they were praying for us. I prayed like I never had before. A phone call came early one morning from the surgeon. Tests showed no cancer. Plans shifted. Surgery would take place. Hope, thankfulness and joy filled the air.

Here are a few things I learned:

First, as a parent you would much rather have the pain and suffering than your child, no matter what age they are. It’s hard to see your children suffer. Why some things happen, we may never know. Why now? Why this person? Why this way? Questions and questions and questions. And, questions fuel more uncertainty.

Second, not only does prayer invite God into the situation, knowing that others are praying brings a peace and calm to a hurting family. Others care. Others are thinking about you. Others are with you in spirit. You do not walk alone. You do not face these giants alone. God’s mighty people are there.

Third, prayer helps you keep the spiritual perspective. Prayer keeps God in the forefront. By talking to God we are reminded of our place and our hope in the Lord. When we forget this, or lose this, we are likely to turn to bitter attitudes, angry words, and become a people who live without hope. God changes all of that. God keeps us close to Him and we need to stay just as close to Him.

Notice, the qualifiers in our passage today. It’s not just for anyone and everyone. Just pray and great things happen—that’s what the world wants to hold on to. Ignore God. Disobey God. Use God. But when trouble comes, pray and blessings flow down from Heaven. Unfortunately, the passage doesn’t say this. The accomplished prayer comes from a righteous man. A man who knows the Lord. A man who walks with the Lord in righteousness. Such a man talks to God often. He loves God. He longs for God. He wants to be with God. He has a strong and close relationship with God. God is ever present with this righteous man. He is righteous because of God. He seeks to be righteous. He is a man of moral fiber. He is a person of godliness.

What a wonderful, wonderful blessing to be able to talk to the Lord, anytime and from any place. You don’t have to be in a church building to pray. God is always there for you. God is not limited.  God is not confined nor placed in a box created by us.

Thank you, dear God, for allowing us to talk to you. Thank you for not being too busy for us. Thank you for not thinking we are too insignificant to you. Thank you for not being bothered by us. Thank you, for hearing prayer. Thank you for hearing our prayer. Thank you for hearing my prayer.

Thank you.

Roger

Jump Start # 1971

James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

Now that the initial shock of the church shooting in Texas has been felt, the media discussion now turns to how this should have been prevented. Fingers are being pointed and there is plenty of blame to pass around. And out of all places, a shooting that took place during a Sunday worship in a church building, some are wondering what good prayers did. Some have even mocked that there has been enough prayers and now it’s time for action.

It’s hard for a secular and atheistic media to understand praying to God. I guess some thought that praying would provide magical body armor and no one would have been injured. Behind most of this thinking lies a deeper and troubling thought, If God allows a person to be killed while worshipping Him, where is He? And, Does He care? Or, deeper yet, ‘Does He really exist?’ If a person isn’t safe in a house of God, then what presence, power or even hope do we have in God? If we are on our own, why even bother with God if He is not going to come through and protect us?

Those that have little room for God in their thinking, will use this shooting as case in point that God doesn’t help us. What little spiritual thinking they have, will be consumed with the thought of children being killed in a church shooting. Some will mock God for this. Some will give up on prayer because of this. Some will be satisfied with their atheistic beliefs because of this. “If God allows worshippers to killed in church, then is there even a God?”

There are layers and layers of unrealistic expectations, misinformed minds, and a complete missing of what the Bible teaches. Luke 13 tells of the Galileans who were murdered while sacrificing to God. These same questions could have been and may have been asked back then.

So, let’s walk through some basic principles that we know.

First, God as given us a free will. This began in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had choices. God told them what to do to live. He warned them about the wrong choices. Free will allows a heart to follow what it wants. Had God stopped Adam from eating the forbidden fruit, God would have also shut down Adam’s free will. God wants us to follow Him by faith, not force. God wants us to love Him by choice, and not because we have no other choice.

So, Adam took the wrong fruit and ate. God allowed that. Cain picked up a rock and threw it at his brother, Abel and it killed him. God allowed that. God allowed the people in Noah’s day to think evil continually. God allowed the first century world to crucify His Son. And God allowed an evil person to enter a church building last Sunday with a gun and kill people. Why didn’t God stop Him? The world expects that. Would the world expect God to stop people from drinking alcohol at the ballgame on the Saturday before the shooting? Would the world expect God to stop people from telling a lie to cover up the wrong that they have done? Would the world expect God to get them out of bed and get them down to a church building on Sunday when they don’t want to be there? Just how much of our free will do we want God to take away? Do we want to be able to say anything we feel like? That’s free will. Do we want to be able to do what we want? That’s free will. Removing choices and forcing people to do what they may not want to do, sounds more like slavery than it does devotion and commitment. Do you want God to force you to apologize or forgive? Do you want God to force you to be obedient? Do you want God to make you do what is right?

Second, the thought is mockingly made that prayers didn’t help the people in the Texas church. Do we know that prayers didn’t help? Not everyone was killed. Do we know that prayers were offered? Things happened so fast and so violently that maybe prayers weren’t offered. Our passage today reminds us that the prayers of a righteous man accomplishes much. Prayer works. It is the prayer of a righteous man. Praying after things have happened can’t alter what has been done. Praying just when I am in a desperate need and then forgetting God the rest of the time, won’t do much. The righteous man is one who knows, believes and walks with God. He is right with God. His thoughts surround pleasing God. He is one who understands God and loves God. Unrighteous people praying may not move God. God may wonder why are you crying out in the storms when you are not thankful for the sunshine? We don’t know what Heaven heard that day. We don’t know what all God did that day.

Third, a lack of Bible knowledge leads some to think that God ought to and still works through miracles. This misguided thinking has led them to the impression that God has a shield around His people and no harm can touch them. Some have just enough Bible knowledge to be dangerous to their own good. Miracles served a purpose. They were to prove Jesus and His word. That’s been done. It’s accomplished. We don’t need miracles when we have a verse! A walk through the Scriptures reminds us that it was God’s people who were in lion’s dens, fiery furnaces and prisons. It was God’s people who were killed by the sword and beheaded. God never promised that His people would not be touched by harm. In fact, Jesus told His followers that they would be hated because of Him. Parents, Jesus warned, would turn their own kids in to the authorities for arrest and punishment because they believed in Jesus. Look at the Scriptures, these things are there.

Fourth, this will never be Heaven. This world is broken by sin. This world is caving in. Why are we continually shocked by sinful behavior when sin dominates this world. When told about the Galileans who were murdered, Jesus told the audience to repent. He didn’t say that the Galileans should repent, but those talking to Jesus should. Our sins contribute to the brokenness of this world. We need to be walking with God. We need to be righteous.

Finally, it’s hard for a secular and atheistic world to blame a mass killer. Isn’t this just the consequences of living without any rules? Isn’t this survival of the fittest? If we are nothing more than evolved animals, what makes any of this wrong? It’s hard to point fingers at a Hitler whose government wanted to eliminate certain people. It was what his society wanted. Without God. Without accountability. Without a higher standard. Without being anything more than a animal, why is this wrong? Animals kill fellow animals all the time. That’s what they do. If that’s all that we are, why is any of this wrong? In the atheistic world, this is as good as it will ever get. There is nothing beyond death, in their minds. There is nothing to hope for outside of what we now see. A violent, selfish world is what atheism gives us. This is not the way God intended life to be. God made us separate from animals. We are not a part of the animal kingdom. We are made in the image of God. We have a conscience and a soul. We can rise up and do better. We can control our thoughts, words and actions. We can walk righteously with God. It’s choices. Animals run on instinct. We run on conscience. Atheism has fried the conscience of unbelievers. This is why the world can say anything offensive, wear anything offensive and do anything offensive and they do not understand why people are upset. We are upset because we can do better. We are connected to one another.

The shooter in Texas preached atheism. He lived and he died without God. His choices reflected that. This morning, he now sees what a fool he was and that God is. He wasted his life believing something that isn’t true. He now understands that death didn’t end his life. He lives and now he has no free will, no choices and no hope.

Psalms 14 begins with, “The fool says that there is no God.” He can say it. Free will allows that. He can die believing that. But he will immediately understand why he is a fool. Facing God who he has denied and blasphemed all his life, knowing that his future is an eternity without God.

Does prayer work? Yes. Prayer is not getting what I want, but what God wants. I continue to pray for those families in Texas. I also pray for those who want to give up on God because of this. May they take a serious look at what the Bible really says. God prepares us for an eternity with Him, not an eternity without Him, doing what we want here.

There is hope in troubled times!

Roger

Jump Start # 1594

James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

  We continue our look at the subject of prayer. Our verse today is one that is found in most studies on prayer. There are three components within this verse.

First, confessing sins and praying for one another. That’s tough. We have too much pride to really tell what is going on in our hearts. We confess “safe” sins. We confess the things that everyone goes through, such as, attitude issues, discouragement and not praying much. You’ll find others agreeing with you. But the really big stuff, the dark sins, we keep under lock and key and no one knows about them. We are afraid of what others might think if they knew. So there isn’t much confessing and praying for one another except for superficial and physical things. We’ll reveal that we are having a surgery, pray for us, we say. We may say that we are looking for another job, pray for us. But the sins, we haven’t done well with handling those. As a result, there isn’t much healing going on. Healing isn’t from knee replacement surgery, it’s healing from sins. Sin leaves us broken and confessing and praying brings the healing. The healing of a broken marriage. The healing of broken trusts. The healing of forgiveness.

Second, prayer can accomplish much. This is why we pray. It’s not a mental or an emotional exercise as Freud taught. He never got it. It’s not a mechanism to deal with the misery in our lives. We are talking to the living God. He can and has done things. He can change things. God was so mad at Israel that He was ready to wipe them out and start over. Moses interceded. Moses prayed. God changed His mind. Elijah prayed and it didn’t rain. He prayed later on, and it rained. When teaching about prayer, Jesus told the disciples to ask “Give us this day our daily bread.” God does that. He does that every day. Most of us have our daily bread whether we ask God or not. Long before that prayer is uttered, God is at work. He has farmers planting seed in the fields. He has that seed nourished by spring rains. He has the sun shining on the fields as the grain grows. At harvest, God has the farmers out bringing in the grain. Then it is processed.  In our times, it goes to the bakers. Then to the stores. Then we buy it and bring it home. There has been months and months of care getting that bread to you. God was aware of that. God was working even before we were asking. He knew.

Prayer works. Prayer can bring spiritual wisdom. Prayer can open doors. Prayer can change hearts. Maybe we are not praying big enough prayers. Maybe our prayers are kept too close to the shore. Maybe our prayers surround the physical side of things more than the spiritual side. A healed body but a lost soul doesn’t impress God. A nice church building but empty hearts doesn’t move God. Faith is what has always caught the eye of our Savior. Maybe we ought to be praying more for growing and powerful faith. Maybe we need to pray that some will go to the pig pen, like the prodigal, so that their eyes will be opened and that they will come to their senses and come back to God. Maybe little is happening because little is expected and little is being prayed for.

Prayer can accomplish much. The question to ask, then, just what is it that you want to accomplish? What do we as a church want to accomplish? What do we want God to help us with? What do we want God to do for us? Instead of just thanking God for the day, ought we to ask God to use us this day to glorify Him? Instead of just thanking God for our food, ought we to ask God to use the food to give us the strength to talk to a family member about their walk with the Lord? Instead of just asking God to guide us, ought we to ask the Lord to lead us to righteous ways? Prayer works! It can accomplish much.

Third, it is the prayer of a righteous man that catches the attention of God. It’s not just any prayer. It’s not everyone’s prayer. But the words of a righteous man can accomplish much. “Well, that’s just the problem,” some would admit. “I’m not all that good.” Righteous. Righteous is not perfectly sin free. It is being right with God. It means walking with God. It is doing right things. It is thinking right thoughts. A righteous man is one who is trying to be right with God. His choices are based upon God. He is God-thinking. He doesn’t live free of God, but instead, with God.

You can be righteous. Jesus is what makes us that way. Forgiven and committed to Christ, we walk in righteousness. Be holy is what Peter tells us to be. The prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. A righteous man is one who talks to God often. He is a person who asks God. He is a person who thanks God. He is a person who praises God. His life is lived with one foot already in Heaven. Don’t view him as a monk who sits around all day humming and praying. The righteous man is a family man. He is a worker. He enjoys family. He plays sports. He plays music. He likes to travel. He worships with the church. He is kind and generous. He thinks of others. He is a person just like you. That’s the point! Don’t dismiss the subject of prayer because you are not righteous. Get that way. You can be that way. You ought to be that way. The alternative to being righteous is “unrighteous.” That’s no good. That is troublesome and plagued with selfish and wrong choices. The righteous way is the way you want to go.

Your prayers can accomplish much. From this we need to consider what we are praying about? Is it always about us or others? Is it more on physical things or spiritual things? Is it about making lives nicer or closer to God? Is it merely a check list or are we really wanting and inviting God into these situations?

Prayer doesn’t have to be long to be effective. Prayer doesn’t have to cover all the bases before it is effective. Some pray for just one specific thing. That’s it. That’s enough.

Give this some thought today as you pray. You have the attention of God. He is listening to you. Talk to Him. Pour your heart out to Him. Really pray. Then look out. Things will happen. The prayer of the righteous can accomplish much. It’s God who is doing it, but it may be that He was just waiting for you to ask Him.

Get praying…

Roger

Jump Start # 1068

James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

  Billy is a dear friend of mine. We have a great bond and I love him dearly. Billy has cancer. He then got another form of cancer. The church family has prayed and prayed for Billy. Everyone loves Billy. He has that kind spirit that just lifts all of us up. We found out this week that Billy’s cancer is now in remission. His reports are great. Everyone is ecstatic. We love good news. We especially love good news about our Billy.

Our verse today reminds us that prayer works. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. The accomplishment came by God. But it came about because a righteous man effectively prayed for it.

The context has a spiritual flavor to it. The verse begins with the confessing of sin to one another. It continues with praying for one another so that you will be healed. Healing is not always health issues. Here, it is spiritual issues. The confessing of sins and the praying and the healing are all tied together. One Christian friend is helping another. The problem is faith and sin. The faith is thin and the sin is great. Their love, relationship and bond in Christ, leads one to confess his sins. He admits. He fesses up. He drops the excuses, the cover-ups, and the shallow reasons to justify wrong. He admits. He admits to his friend, which leads him to admit to God. If we confess our sins, John reminds us, he is faithful to forgive. The confessing is not a power thing or one having control over another. The confessing isn’t what our Catholic friends do with their priest. This is two Christians who care about each other. God forgives. But forgiveness follows admitting our sins. One confesses. The other prays for him. He prays for his forgiveness. He prays for his honesty. He prays for strength for future battles. The prays help. The prayers build and encourage. Healing takes place. Healing from the pain that sin has caused. Healing of forgiveness from God. Healing from wrong choices.

James tags a spiritual principle to this situation. Effective prayer of a righteous man works. Effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. Biblical history shows that. The prayers of Moses. The prayers of Elijah. The prayers of David. God hears. God is moved by His people seeking Him.

There are all kinds of prayers. There are big prayers and little prayers. There are prayers in church and prayers at home in the closet. There are prayers for self and there are prayers for others. There are prayers about physical things and there are prayers about spiritual things. So many prayers. So many needs calling for prayer.

I have found that there are two things that need to follow prayer. Saying a prayer to God is not the end. Something follows. Sometimes we forget these things.

  First, after the amen comes our action. For instance, we pray to God for the church to grow. Great idea. After the amen, it’s time to go share the word. God gives the increase, but we must sow the seed. We pray for the sick. After the amen, we need to go visit them and encourage them. We pray for the elders. After the amen, we need to encourage them face to face. Our part doesn’t end with the amen. After the amen, we need to act like we prayed. We need to do our part. We need to get busy. God doesn’t magically do things for us while we stay at home watching TV. He’ll work with us and through us, but without us, how serious is our prayer? Our actions following the amen show how serious we are.

Second, after the amen comes a prayer of thankfulness. God answers prayers. God heals. That’s what our verse says. We rejoice. We have a party. Good things have happened. We need to thank God. Without God, those things would never have been Without God, what a mess we would be in. It easy to think to pray when things are not right. But when they become right, we sometimes forget to thank God. Remember the ten lepers that Jesus healed? Only one, a Samaritan at that, returned to thank Jesus. The Lord asked, ‘where are the nine?” They got the mercy they wanted. They failed to thank. Don’t do the same. After the amen comes a prayer of thankfulness.

Prayer is a powerful and important aspect of our faith. Become a person of prayer. Pray often. Then remember what follows your prayers!

Roger

Jump Start # 474 

James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” 

  Prayer works! That’s the point James is driving at. Throughout the book of James the subject of prayer is addressed. Often it’s negative. He tells them earlier that they do not receive because they pray with the wrong motives. Other times he tells them that prayer fails because they don’t believe. But here, James takes on the positive aspect of prayer.

  The King James Version uses the expression “fervent” prayer. I like that. It’s the same word for hot or fever. He is describing passionate praying. Not just mumbling some words, not repeating the same lifeless expressions, but praying that is intense, focused and heart felt. James is not addresses public prayers—although they ought to be fervent as well. He is talking about private prayers. It is interesting that the prayer follows the confessing of sins to one another. This is the natural process of things spiritually. When one has acknowledge wrong, he ought to seek forgiveness, first from God and then from others. Prayer is that avenue. James says to “pray for one another.”

  Pray for forgiveness. Pray for a restored relationship. Pray that the relationships can be repaired that have been ripped apart by sin. Pray for patience and kindness.

  Following our verse, James tells of the prayers of Elijah. His prayers to God affected the nation as God withheld rain and then later, after another prayer, it poured rain on the earth. Elijah is the footnote, the proof that prayer works.

  Prayer is one of those special spiritual tools that we always have with us. We can’t always have our Bibles with us. We can’t always have each other with us. But we can always pray. There are times, such as in meetings, or sitting on a table awaiting the surgeon, or stuck in traffic when we can pray. Pray is the roadway by which we can thank God for His care, mercies and blessings. Prayer can be the means to open doors that seem to be closed. Prayer can be the process in which we volunteer for God to use us in His service. Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me.” Prayer is the means in which we can say the same to God.

  Praying for one another, that’s a big thing to do. The larger the congregation, the more you have to pray for. The more friends you have, the more people you have to pray for. Family members, church members, co-workers, friends, neighbors—those going through tough times, those who are sick, those who are not Christians, those who are doubting—the list is long.

  Paul did this, often. He prays for congregations. He names people at the end of his letters that he prays for.

  There is something special about all of this. This is more than a duty we ought to do…more than a task that has to be done…it is simply special to take someone’s name and lift it up to the throne of Heaven. There is no greater help than from God. There is no greater love than God’s. When all seems impossible, don’t forget God.

  Have you ever prayed for strangers? It’s harder to do, simply because you don’t know much about them, sometimes even their names. For instance, you are sitting in a restaurant, and the busy waitress, who keeps your glass of tea filled and brings your food, say a pray for her. Or, how about the person at the check out counter at the store. They can seem bored and simply doing their job, how about a prayer for that person. How about the nurse who helps you get ready for your tests and scans…how about the guy who changes the oil in your car…how about the bus driver who takes your kids to school each day…how about the legendary football coach who was fired…or the senator you read about in the paper…or the guy who writes Jump Starts.

  Expand your prayers. As Jesus told the disciples, “lift up your eyes and look upon the fields…”

  Everybody needs prayers. We need God. Once you start thinking this way, everyone you see, you think about saying a prayer. You become as some call it a “Prayer warrior.” Now understand, prayer isn’t the end of my obligation nor responsibilities. Praying alone will not save souls. Praying alone will not raise my kids. Without praying, it’s an up hill battle for sure, but after I have said, “amen,” I need to get about doing what God wants me to do in those areas.

  Pray for one another. We need that. We need each other. Through prayer, we are connected, to God and to each other.

Roger