And when someone strays from the faith, they don’t alienate that person with harsh words of judgment. They accept the fact that they’re “only human,” but they still expect great things from God when they pray. The church community is praying together, confessing their sins to one another.
In this last part of his letter, he shows what that looks like.
Do James’s words mean that a sick person must have sinned in some way, to bring on the sickness? No! Sometimes that could be the case, but not always.Įarlier, James challenged his readers to humble themselves before the Lord. The connection between sin and sickness is not an easy one to figure out. But there is also healing power as the community of faith gathers, with its appropriate leadership, to call upon the Lord. Call out to God privately when you need His help. Scripture indicates great value in both personal prayer and group prayer, and both appear here in verses 13–14. With that in mind, choose whatever posture or format makes sense. It’s a conversation with a great God who loves us. Certainly we want to speak respectfully to the Creator of the universe, but that didn’t stop Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, or other biblical heroes from speaking their minds.
If prayer is, essentially, talking with God, then there must be many ways to do it.
