An Exposition on the Book of James Part 23
If you haven’t yet, please check out part 1 of this series. The ideas of the book of James are all centered around the idea of a perfectly forged faith that makes us perfect.
The context of James 5 comes out of a great deal about faith and trials of that faith. Faith is simply believing that Jesus can and will do what he says. We must approach these verses with caution because many have taken them out of context. The idea set before us is powerful. It is how God answers the prayer of a fervent righteous man. There are qualifiers in this statement. Also, we have a command to pray for one another and to confess our saults one to another. These are all important steps. Everyone wants to focus on the healing, but few achieve the healing that they seek because they fail to look at the qualifiers.
First, we must come to this in faith, since this entire chapter has been about the trial of our faith. I know that God can and does perform miracles. He can heal any illness man can contact. I believe that fully. That does not mean that God will heal any person that asks, even if they come in faith. We have to look no further than the apostle Paul. He was not healed though he came in faith, was righteous and fervent in his prayers. So, we must conclude on the entire portion of God’s eternal perfect Word that this is not an unconditional promise to health.
With that being said, if God answers no to a health request it should produce inside us the peace that Paul received. Glorying in our infirmity because we are convinced that God has given us this tribulation in our life to bring about a perfectly forged faith in him and his word to where we do not require the healing, but the healer. This type of faith can and should produce a faith that moves mountains and stops the rain. We have access to this same power that Elijah had. We get focused on the answer, and we lose focus on the answerer. When I tell my children “No” it is because – usually – that thing is not what is best for us. If we have our trust in an almighty God who knows everything and we ask him for something – even if we know that thing we are asking him for is good, we must trust his omnipotence and his love for us that he has a reason that he said “no.”
James 5:16-18 KJV
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Before you ask God for anything, make sure you try to get into a place of a little child approaching a father who adores you. Because he does. He loves you. and he knows what is best for you. Remind yourself that. Not so that you can pray with reservation, but so that you can come boldly before him! knowing that he will give the correct judgment. You ask and he will answer correctly. Do not stop asking until he gives you a clear and decided answer. He will! And that answer should never produce a doubt in the goodness of your God.
S.T.
Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me..."
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