Lifepoint Church

Last Sunday Pastor Mike spoke about the last verses in James 5 and talked about the types of prayers that were offered up. As I went back and read the last section titled, “The Prayer of Faith,” a few things stuck out to me.  Though this passage is only eight verses long, I believe it says a lot about the fundamentals of Christianity and how we ought to be living as one.

In this section of eight verses, it says the words “pray, prayer, or praise” eight times. Prayer is something we should constantly be doing (1 Thes 5:17), as it is our direct communication line to God.

Another thing that stuck out to me is the theme of love in this passage. Though it never says the word love, I can feel the back bone of love from reading it. It talks a lot about dealing with others, calling on others, etc. All of these things must be done in love. We must pray for our brothers out of a Godly love for them. We must forgive our brothers because God tells us to do so and to love one another. All of the action it tells us to take in this passage must be done out of love and should be done to show love.

Lastly is the importance of faith.
“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well…” (James 5:15)
Our prayers must be offered up in faith. First, we are praying because we have faith that God hears us. But we should also pray because we know that God is near and he will always answer us in some way. It later talks about how Elijah prayed earnestly for no rain and it didn’t rain for three and a half years. The definition of earnest is: serious in intention, purpose, or effort; sincerely zealous. A prayer of faith should be an earnest prayer. The two should go hand in hand and we should pray with seriousness and intention because we have faith that God will hear us.

Prayer, faith, and love should be the basic fundamentals of our Christian lives. Without this, we’ve missed the most important things Jesus tried to teach us. Faith should be expressed through prayer and acted out in love.