April 22 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 112—James 5:16

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:

A further principle of effective praying is this—pray for one another united as repentant sinners. "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (v. 14).

God speaking through James introduced the mention of sin at the end of verse 15 in the context of praying for a sick person—"And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." Notice the "if"—there might be a connection between sin and sickness, but it is not necessarily so in each case. The sickness and the guilt might be tangled together. Therefore the cure promised in verse 16 might include both physical and spiritual healing. God calls us to pray as repentant sinners seeking a complete salvation in our lives.

The epistle of James is written to people struggling with hardship. God's answer is not, "keep a stiff upper lip." God's answer is pray! But it's more than that. These verses, coming as part of the conclusion of the whole epistle, describe a healing of their relationships with God and with each other.

And their relationships needed healing. As a first result of their suffering, their relationship with God had been suffering. They were falling into temptations to doubt God (1:6); to blame God (1:13); or to bargain with God (5:12). God through James directs them back to God in faith expressed in a reliance on him in prayer.

A second result of their adversities is that their relationships with each other had been suffering. God had to warn them against playing favorites with each other (2:1); verbally attacking each other (3:9); fighting with each other (4:1); slandering each other (4:11); and judging each other (4:12).

Our present Scripture shows us that the Lord is calling you to experience a triumph of his grace in the whole congregation. He points out the oneness that we already have with each other because of our common need of forgiveness. If we consciously stand together before God as sinners needing grace and seeking righteousness, that stance has compelling application in our relationships. Instead of judging each other, we will want to confess where we have sinned against each other. Instead of wanting to inflict guilt-trips on each other, we will become eager to forgive each other. Instead of being moved to criticize each other, we will be moved to pray for each other.

Christians praising God joyfully, confessing their sins openly, and praying for each other lovingly; the church together experiencing the power of the Lord granting spiritual cleansing and physical healing. This is the exciting power of the Lord that we open our lives to by prayer.

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