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Meditation

Reader,

Today's passage differs from previous passages in this season. Rather than containing a prayer, it provides instruction for how to pray.

Specifically, I've included it as the instruction is bound together with a clear command for believers to pray together through their trials and blessings.

And not just to pray together but also to pray for each other in their presence. Prayer is the proper response to trials, but is not self-seeking.

An active, transparent and collective prayer life sits at the heart of a community living out its faith. While much prayer is personal, a healthy prayer life is also communal.

Today's text is James 5:13-18

The Prayer of Faith

¹³ Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.

¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

¹⁷ Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸ Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Encouragement

James' Letter to the Jewish/ Christian diaspora is known for arguing how Christians must live out their faith. To be "doers, not just hearers, of God’s Word." And to seek God's wisdom to counter the challenges and persecutions of living in the world;

"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."

James 1:5-6

Andy

God's word in your hand

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