April 19 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 109—James 5:14–16

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. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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.

Devotional:

There's nothing magic about this (by "magic," I mean going through specific motions in order to get specific results from God.) The fact that the sick person calls is an expression of faith in God, which is a condition for effective prayer. It is "the prayer of faith [that] will save the one who is sick" (v. 15).

On the one hand, that means that if you do call the elders, do not do so as an attempt to manipulate God to do your will, but in genuine faith. Remember James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

On the other hand, that means that if you do call the elders, do so with the attitude, "Thy will be done." It is "the prayer of faith [that] will save the one who is sick" (v. 15). And genuine faith does not presume on God. Nor does it seek to boss God. Rather, genuine faith submits to God and his wisdom. After all, God has just said, "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin" (4:13–17).

Moreover, the fact that the sick person calls "the elders of the church" is an expression of submission to Christ as the King and Head of the church, which is an additional condition for powerful prayer. "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." (v. 16b). Nothing in the text hints at anything like specialized gifts for miraculous healing, such as the apostles had. These are ordinary church elders. But they are ordained servants who do represent the King and Head of the church.

In other words, the prayer of faith seeks the Lord himself through the means that he has ordained and promised to bless. Among those ordinances is church government. "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church..."

Click here for background on the author of Are You For Real?: Meditations in the Epistle of James for Secret or Family Worship.