Praying for healing
Ja 5:13a, 14-16, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray... 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
I am not aware of anyone who hasn’t been through pain or illness at any point of their lives. We must also all know of some people who are in the middle of such situations. Therefore, we all need to understand this prayer in order to be able to pray it effectively.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. We pray so as to know what to do. It is written indeed: “In the day of adversity consider” and also, « No temptation/testing has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (Eccl. 7:14 & 1Co 10:13). It is in reflective prayer that we will find a way out and the strength to deal with and overcome whatever afflicts us. Therefore, we pray to seek God’s wisdom (see last week’s posting).
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church… Paradoxically, we are not asked to pray straight away. In fact, I would have even thought that we would be asked to call the elders when we suffer and pray when we are sick; but the opposite is recommended. On the other hand, this passage mentions several things that seem necessary for healing. It seems that prayer alone is not enough.
Let him call for the elders of the church: This implies that you are a member of an assembly and you recognise its leadership. Let them pray over him: By requiring you to go through them, God requires you to respect authority and submit to it. Otherwise, you will have a hard time enjoying biblical healing. Remember the Roman centurion whose faith Jesus praised. His servant was sick and he called the Elder of the time, Jesus. Yet, it is his understanding of authority and submission to it which triggered the healing miracle (Mat 8:5-13).
Confess your sins to one another: Here it is the obligation of dependence vis-à-vis other Christians, and the need to walk in light. In other words, this forces us to consider that we are not free electrons. We are part of a Body and what affects us (sin or sickness), also affects the rest of the Body (1Co 12:12-27). It also shows the direct relationship that some of our diseases may have with sin. That is why Paul said, speaking of Holy Communion, that those who take it unworthily (e.g. while living in sin) are at risk of infirmity, disease and even death.
Pray for one another. The dependence we are talking about goes in both directions. On the one hand, we submit to others by confessing our sins, but we are also sensitive to their problems on the other hand. Let’s not be selfish people who always ask people to pray for them but never really take time to intercede for others. We will be measured by what we use to measure others (Lk 6:38). Let us suffer with those who suffer and be compassionate.
Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. This reminds us of the importance of faith and anointing oil in the prayer for healing. Moreover, it is not the elders who heal, but the name of Jesus. The elders are only the instruments of the LORD.
If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Here is another aspect of authority. It is the prayer of the elders which causes sins to be forgiven. Jesus had said to Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” He later repeated it to the other apostles: “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mat 16:19 & 18:18). Your pastors and elders have the keys for your welfare: they watch over your soul (Heb 13:17). When a Christian tries to hide and appear super-spiritual and refuses to open up to his/her leaders, he/she just returns a knife against themselves. Indeed, there is no power against the truth and, he who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy (2Co 13.8, Pr 28.13).
…. That you may be healed. One must do all this; one must meet all these steps to be healed. However, we know that in practice, this is not always possible nowadays. As all steps are mandatory and none can be short-circuited, what can we do then, in such cases?
Well, you can always pray yourself, providing you are righteous. Indeed, let me summarise. If I'm sick and want to be healed through prayer, I must:
- Belong to a church
- Acknowledge its leadership, accept it and submit to it.
- Confess my sins to my leaders and possibly to the brethren as well (my leaders will tell me if this is necessary)
- Carry the burdens of my brethren in prayer, have compassion.
- More than my own faith (which is indispensable still), it is the faith of the elders that matters the most here.
But, all these conditions -and even more- are easily met by the righteous. This is why James ends by saying that: The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. I do not have time to expand on the characteristics of the righteous, but carry out some research using a biblical concordance and you will be greatly enlighten.
Have a great week and God bless you.
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