Scripture: James 5: 13-19

Rev. John W. Fowler

I wanted to share with you this morning one of my favorite subjects from the Bible, and that is prayer, and especially about the prayer of faith. James’ letter of practical Christianity that really encourages us to put our faith into practice, but he especially wants our faith in practice in doing good deeds, but especially in our praying — to put your faith into practice in your praying. I want to share with you from James, chapter 5, beginning with verse 13 as James, toward the end of his letter writes:

Verse 16 says: The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

James was also known as “Old Camel Knees”. Aaron was talking about a camel in his children’s story, but the reason he was called Old Camel Knees was because he prayed so much he actually had knots on his knees. I’ve known people that had old sports injuries needing knee surgery but generally it isn’t because they have been on their knees so much praying. But James was quite a man of prayer, not just a man of action but a man of prayer.

When we look at the saints and their life of prayer, oftentimes they inspire us, but if you don’t watch out they also can intimidate us. I think of someone like Mother Theresa. Generally we hear of her great work in Calcutta with the Sisters of Charity, but I was reading an interview one time, and if you looked at Mother Theresa’s schedule — as many of the nuns — the morning, afternoon, evening, there are about three hours there committed to either personal prayer or community prayer. That’s just a way of life.

I think of Martin Luther, the great reformer, who in one of his journals writes that I am so busy today I’ve got to pray three hours. Generally prayer is what gets cut when are so busy, but Martin Luther wanted to be sure that he was doing the right thing. John Wesley, it looks like about a couple of hours that he would devote to prayer in the morning and in the evening. Sometimes those saints, although they inspire me, sometimes again they intimidate me. They are like the Olympic swimmers I was watching this summer and I was just marveling how they, just like fish, can go up and back, but I made the mistake of actually looking at the times that they were keeping, and I realized they were a whole lot faster than I am — I mean a whole lot faster, but I still got back in the pool and plodded and plodded there and I enjoyed doing it, but sometimes instead of inspiring us, saints almost intimidate us if we allow them to.

Someone you may not know of — and that’s why we need ordinary people to inspire us as well to pray — and I think of the Welch revival at the turn of the century in 1904 and 1905, that God used, not a preacher, but a coal miner named Evan Roberts, an ordinary man, but a man who had, especially since age 13, really developed a heart for God and a heart for prayer. And God used him in praying. I think back over the years of people in congregations I have served that have inspired me. A couple that I know are in Heaven now. Mama Cude. I remember prayer meetings before revivals. We would all go around and pray for the preacher, pray that God would really send revival to our congregation, but when Mama Cude prayed, I mean you knew this woman really knew God and really meant what she said when she prayed, “God, send Your power on us tonight,” when you just felt the Lord just come in the room. I think of Miss Moss, another lady in Heaven, a very humble lady, and I remember her talking about her prayer life and said, “You know, I’m so slow at my praying, it takes me a couple of hours to get through my list.”

God gives us ordinary people to inspire us, and one in the Bible that James says is ordinary, that lets us know that you don’t have to be a famous saint to pray, that God uses your prayers as well as anyone, is the example of Elijah, because James says he was an ordinary person, just like you and me. When he prayed that it didn’t rain, it didn’t rain for three and a half years. And then he prayed and the rain came. I love biography; I want to share a little bit about the example of Elijah and the prayer of faith. Just think in your life right now: How do I need to put the prayer faith into practice? How especially can I put this prayer into practice in my life?

First of all, if you look at Elijah’s life, and you especially find it in I Kings, chapter 18, you’ll see that Elijah learned how to pray for his physical needs. He prayed the prayer of faith about his physical needs. This is one of the most basic lessons that God wants to teach us in faith — that we learn to trust Him for the physical needs that we have. The Children of Israel, I mean, just Faith 101 was: Here’s the manna; I am going to feed you everyday. Well, they got to where they started complaining about the provision, but God wanted them to get to where they would trust Him and actually thank Him for His provision. Jesus certainly fed the four-thousand and the five-thousand, but then again, they wanted him just to, “Well, how about another miracle?” When He began to talk about discipleship, well, that was another matter.

But, back up for a minute. The setting that Elijah comes into, in I Kings, verse 16, is that King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are the king and the queen of evil, especially Ahab. They said he is the worst that has ever been. Now, if someone is described as the worst King that has ever been, that’s pretty bad. And so, that they were not a faith-friendly couple is to say the least. Jezebel brought her Baal worship with her and Ahab thought that was wonderful, so Elijah came into a time that the people had forsaken the Lord God. And he gives his verdict from God: He says, “It’s not going to rain until I say it’s going to rain, because God says so.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.” And so, he says the word, and it doesn’t rain. He goes into hiding. They look for him but they can’t find him. A famine comes upon the land. We know the havoc that too much rain brings about, but when there is not any rain and there is a famine, it’s a desperate time. But even in a desperate time, Elijah knew that God’s going to take care of his needs. He learned, first of all, that God’s going to feed him. And He fed him in some unique ways. First of all He fed him with the ravens. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening. Now, let’s face it: It probably was some pretty high class garbage, but that’s what the ravens are going to bring you. I don’t know if they found a good restaurant or something, but probably it wasn’t the prime food that you would want, but it kept him alive and it was God’s provision for him.

It was very simple…(tape change)… don’t want to tell people what it is but you know, God knows, and you would like for people to know: “I need prayer.” So, I raised my hand. But we were broke. I mean, we were really broke. I didn’t know what we were going to eat that week and I didn’t know whether it was going to be begging on the street or what it was, but I knew that we didn’t have any money. So, they prayed, and at MYF that night, we went, and the good news is that they gave us an old fashioned pounding. An old fashioned pounding is not that they roughed you up; that means that they gave you groceries. And so, for two weeks we learned that, well, the prayer of faith really does work and there were countless other times. Sometimes it was tuition for Seminary or cars to keep working, but we started learning that you should take your needs to God.

The Apostle Paul, when he said, My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus, well, it’s very true. Elijah, then, was faced with a crisis of a different nature, a different need. The widow had a son and the son became very ill; in fact, he died. And the widow was just traumatic about this and said, “Why did you even come into our midst if our son is going to die?”

He said, “Give me the son.”

He took the son, took him up to his room, prayed for him, prayed — I mean this is an extremely bold prayer — “Lord, put his life back into him. This is like Jesus calling Lazarus to come forth from the grave. Well, this boy’s life comes back into him. The woman says, “Well, I truly know that you are a prophet of God.”

What did Elijah do? Well, he had just a bold faith that even though this boy had died, that God could do something about it. You know, over the years, sometimes I have struggled about why God heals someone and doesn’t heal another one, but then I always still come back to, especially when I pray for people, I don’t have to know how it comes out. It’s going to come out to pray effectively. In fact, God’s the only one that knows how it’s going to come out. What I need to do, though, is just pray the prayer of faith, to pray that God will truly bless that person and God would heal them, and then leave it in His hands.

I think it’s the attitude of the Centurion, in Matthew chapter 8 when he had a servant that was very sick, in fact paralyzed, he came to Jesus and told Jesus about his need and so Jesus said, “Well, good. I’ll come.” The Centurion said, “Lord, You don’t need to come; You just say the word, and my servant will be made well.”

And Jesus was just amazed. He said, “No where in Israel have I found such a great faith.” And this Roman Centurion has confidence and He said, “Go. It will be done as you have said.” And the servant was made well.

Needs are different. Again, whatever the need is — I remember when our children were young. We had two boys and now they are two big, tall boys, we are real proud of them, but you know, they didn’t sleep well and it seems like for two or three years we were sleepy. With the first boy, Phillip, we served a country congregation. We had mommas there that had eight of ten children. They knew all kinds of things. We were reading this book on parenting, but you know, they had all this real life experience and so they would give us this good advice. I remember one lady who said, “Well, just let ‘em cry; they won’t die.” Well, sometimes we felt like we would die, but anyway, finally, Phillip got over it and would stay in his bed and things like that, and so, when the second child came along, two years and two months later, we thought, “It’s got to be better.”

Well, no, Steve was worse. I mean he wasn’t just as bad; he was worse. But, you know, some of those times we would get so sleepy, I began to realize, you know, you could pray about a problem like I don’t have enough sleep. And God began to help us. It didn’t go away all at once but we began to learn that whatever you are concerned about, whatever you are worried about, whatever you are afraid of — you pray about it. It’s not like: Well, that’s not a spiritual thing. If it concerns you, it concerns the Lord.

Elijah learned to pray about the physical needs in his life and the lives of others. Elijah also learned to pray in times of a spiritual battle. You know, teams will be lining up today to play professional football, and I guarantee — there has been all kind of preparation and the uniform has been put on because they know that there are some big strong men that are out there that hit them, to tackle them, because they want to win. I mean, you don’t have to convince them that there is going to be a battle today. But sometimes Christians are naïve and don’t realize we are in a spiritual battle. There are temptations to sin. There is evil in the world. Elijah was called after this time of famine to confront Ahab and the prophets of Baal and he challenged them to a confrontation on Mt. Carmel and essentially told them that you prepare your sacrifice; I’ll prepare my sacrifice; you get to go first and the god who answers my fire, he is truly the Lord God. He thought, well that’s fine — four-hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, four-hundred prophets of Asherah come on that momentous day that’s detailed in I Kings, chapter 18. And so Elijah says, “Choose this day,” telling the people, “Choose this day whom you shall serve. If the Lord is Baal, serve him. But if the Lord is God, serve Him.” Well, he’s telling him, “You can’t serve both. You have to make a decision.” So the prophets of Baal sing, dance, shout, do everything they can — no fire. And then Elijah begins to taunt them, “Why don’t you get a little louder? Maybe your god is hard of hearing. Maybe you need to wake him up.” They cut themselves and do all kinds of things, but finally by noon they give up. And then Elijah takes his turn. In fact he gets, I think, almost twelve big jars of water, douses the sacrifice just to let them know it’s very wet and it says, at the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed:

And the false prophets were exposed; the false prophets were slain that day, and then as promised, Elijah told Ahab, “You better get back home because it is going to rain.”

You heard about the preacher who called a prayer meeting when it hadn’t rained in months and gathered the prayer meeting and then he called it off. The reason was no one had brought an umbrella. He could tell there wasn’t anything to pray.

Elijah told him, “It’s going to rain.” Seven times he told his servant to go check, and on the seventh time he said, “Well, you know, it does look like there is a little cloud about the size of a man’s fist is coming out of the ocean.” It started getting dark and stormy and it rained! And Elijah, a man just like us, prayed it would not rain and it didn’t. And he prayed again and it rained.

What ways are you tempted or in a spiritual battle? God will help you. I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as one of the heroes of the Christian Church, especially in the twentieth century. This very gifted theologian who taught at Union Theology Seminary went back to Germany to be a part of the movement to oppose Hitler, was imprisoned, and from that we get the classic, The Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer died, I think, just a couple of days before the release of that prison. One doctor who was imprisoned with him said, “This was a young man who was as committed to the will of God as anyone I have ever seen.”

In Exodus, chapter 17, Aaron and Hur were holding up Moses’ hand as Joshua led the Children of Israel into battle and to victory. We still need Aarons and Hurs. We need people that are praying for others to be victorious in the spiritual battles that we face.

And then, I want to share with you further that Elijah prayed this prayer when he was depressed and discouraged. You know, it was a revelation to me, as a young adult, that just because you are Christian doesn’t mean that you will never get depressed or discouraged. In fact, a lot of times God’s people get weary of well-doing. Elijah, after all this tremendous mountain top victory over the prophets of Baal, well, he is tired; he is worn out. And then Jezebel — remember the queen of evil — well, she says, “Well, you tell that man, you tell that prophet that he is going to be like one of those slain prophets before tomorrow if I have something to do with it, and I do.” Well, it scares him to death and he runs, in fact; and he hides and he tells the Lord, “I’ve had enough; let me die.”

And what does he need? He needs to sleep. He needs to eat. He needs to sleep again and he needs to eat. Then, finally the Lord leads him to a mountain and he prays. And there is this great hurricane and the Lord is not in the wind. There is a great earthquake; the lord is not in the earthquake. There is a fire and the Lord is not in the fire. Then in the still, small voice the Lord speaks to him and says, “Elijah, what are you doing here?”

And he says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord and I am the only one left.”

And what He does, He gives him a perspective. He says, “No, you’re not the only one; there are seven thousand others who haven’t bowed to Baal.”

And, oftentimes, that’s what God does when we pray the prayer of faith. When we are discouraged and depressed He gives us perspective; He gives us hope. He lifts our spirits and He tells us that He still loves us and restores us.

How does this work? How do we pray the prayer of faith? Well, one of the ways, you pray especially for other people and pray this prayer I call the Blessed Prayer. I found it in the Upper Room this week. Think about this when you pray for your needs and the needs of others in this acronym called BLESSED.

B is Body. That is, you pray for the health and healing and daily bread and physical needs of other people. Pray for daily bread; pray for people that are sick, but you pray in faith.

L is Labor. That you pray for God’s help in a person’s work and school. That is the daily lives, pray God’s blessings upon them that they be a good witness for Christ in the way they labor.

E is emotional needs. You pray for people that need comfort or reassurance, for hope and joy and peace. Especially pray for people that are grieving.

S is social needs. Pray for healthy relationships with family, friends, associates.

S is spiritual needs. You pray especially for the spiritual growth and a deepening relationship with God and you pray the prayer of faith. And remember, God will use your prayers. He will take the faith you have right now as you put it into practice and pray. And one of the great things about it, as we pray the prayer of faith, is that we pass on the legacy to other people. Generally, I have found as people grow older in their faith, they realize that praying really does make a difference. We may not know how much, and we probably won’t know until we get to Heaven, but we begin more and more to realize that there really is something to this praying.

I think of Elijah’s departure in II Kings. It’s time for God to call him home; in fact, he’s one of the two people in the Bible that bypass death, and God just takes him home. God, toward the latter part of his life, wanted to train other prophets, and especially Elisha, in the ways of the Lord, and then that day comes where the Lord takes him; His chariot comes down, fire, whirlwind — he’s gone. And they are just looking there like, “What was that?” And the other prophets say, “Well, let’s go look for him. Maybe the Lord dropped him on a mountain. Elisha said, “No, he doesn’t.” Elisha takes the robe that Elijah has given him and hits the river; it parts, and they could tell: Here comes another prophet. Why? Because he has seen the model; he has seen the example of this prayer of faith.

Let God use you in your prayers to bless the lives of other people. Amen. Let us pray.