April 20 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 110—James 5:15; 16b

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. … ^16b The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Devotional:

Ours is a supernatural religion. Although it involves both faith and life, it is not mere ideology or mere ethics. We know and serve the living and true God who is infinite and personal and sovereign over all. The Creator and Sovereign of the universe is a wonder-working God. And so he calls us to great expectations as we pray. "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. … The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (vv. 15, 16b). This means that God can and does grant healing. Does that mean that each time we pray in faith and expectation, the prayer will be answered by the person's healing?

When she was a young woman Joni Eareckson Tada was paralyzed in a diving accident. At one point, she sought miraculous healing from the Lord, earnestly praying with a group of charismatic Christian friends. When she was not healed of her paralysis, her friends withdrew, blaming her lack of faith. This occasioned a spiritual crisis for her. She knew that she had believed as hard as she could. So she began to doubt God's motives. She asked her long-time friend, Steve Estes, if God didn't want her to be healed. He explained that God does promise complete healing for his redeemed children, but he does not necessarily promise it in this life. At the resurrection, God will totally heal and glorify Joni's body. In the meantime, God apparently has other purposes for her disability. ^†

Even the faith-filled apostle Paul confessed, "…a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:7-10).

Our God is so much wiser and more compassionate than we are! When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he said that one of the most fundamental things that we should always pray is, "Thy will be done." Indeed, James has just said in the immediate context that it is the grave sin of worldly presumption to say that something is going to happen without saying "if the Lord wills."

God is great! God is good! When you pray "the prayer of faith," you put yourself into his safe hands and trust him.

^† see A Step Further by Joni Eareckson and Steve Estes (Zondervan, 1978)

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