"Why Pray When You Can Bungle?" That is the title of a chapter in a book that deals with this passage of Scripture. Ethel Barrett begins the chapter: "Some wag said that, and as Christians we can chuckle at it for we know that it is ridiculous and we get the point at once. But the tragedy is, we go on living our lives as if we believed it. There isn't anything in James letter that we could not bungle our own way through and 'get by' sometimes even seeming to come out on top of it all. We seem to have a built-in 'I'd rather do it myself complex. So why pray?'"

As we began this study of James I pointed out that the letter of James is sometimes known as the Practical Epistle of James. James, whom the Holy Spirit inspired to pen this letter, had a nickname. Do you remember it? Yes, it was Camel knees, because he spent so much time on his knees in prayer. He had learned that to take Jesus Christ seriously meant living for Christ in the everyday nitty gritty of life. To be practical we must realize that we will not consistently live for Jesus in the ups and downs of life without prayer.

If we made a pact with ourselves that we would go without eating every day that we went without our prayer time the problem would likely be taken care of quickly. Suppose we have bungled long enough and realize that God's way is really more practical. Let us consider 3 R's for prayer.

I. Reasons

James deals with reasons for prayer, and answers why by mentioning situations in which we should pray.

Is any among you suffering? … in difficult circumstances, afflicted, in trouble. This is the same word that Paul used to describe circumstances he faced, difficulties that were not the results of sin or the chastening of God. Again James tells us what to do, Pray.

Is anyone cheerful? We do not face continual adversity and don't all go through troubles at the same time, though occasionally it may seem like it. Hopefully we find some balancing of our difficulties with times of cheerfulness. Pastor Warren Wiersbe put it this way. "God balances our lives and gives us hours of suffering and days of cheerfulness."

In Acts 16 we read "At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God." This illustrates that the mature Christian even sings praises while he or she is suffering. Anybody can sing cheerfully after the trouble has passed.

However, sometimes when things are going well Christians ignore our need to pray and praise God. If you are a follower of Christ He has given you the sweet song of salvation you need to thank and praise God even when it might seem unnecessary. It is too bad that it often takes a crisis to drive us to our knees.

Is anyone sick? The early church was a healing church with tradition inherited from Judaism. The sick Jew went to the Rabbi, not to the doctor. The Rabbi anointed the sick man with oil and prayed for healing. It is a generally accepted practice in the church for those who are sick to ask for prayer, but sometimes it is after they have tried everything else first. When someone is sick James says they should call for the elders of the church, not a faith healer, and not just one person, but spiritual leaders of the local church who seek God's will and pray.

Why pray? There are reasons all around us. We are to pray in all situations according to James. Paul also instructs us to pray without ceasing.

II. Results

When we come to God in prayer we come looking for results. If we are honest, we don't always pray just because we want to and we know we should. We often pray really seeking results.

When we are suffering, prayer can remove the affliction when this is God's will. Other times prayer can give us the grace to endure, turning trials into triumphs. Jesus prayed in Gethsemane that the cup might be removed, but it was not. Instead our Father gave Jesus the strength to go to the cross for our sins.

What are the results when spiritual leaders pray? Sometimes a miraculous healing takes place with or without medical care. James also wrote of anointing with oil in the name of the Lord. I realize that some Christians seem to be very uncomfortable with this Biblical practice. The Greek word here is a medicinal term. Some other Scriptures also speak of the curative power of oil. Jesus sent out disciples to anoint with oil and many sick were healed. After Jesus rose from the idea his commission included laying on of hands. The Greek word for anointing can also be translated "massaging" which could also suggest another means of healing asking God for His divine touch. Regardless, it is God who does the healing through prayer. We also know that oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes when I pray for sick persons I do not always know exactly how to pray for them. Is it God's will to heal this person? How will God heal? Could it be God's will for this person to soon be called to his or her eternal home since that is the perfect healing for the Christian? This does not mean that we should not pray for healing according to the will of God. I sincerely believe that if more Christians would be more dedicated to praying for the sick we would see more miraculous healings. Jesus is the Great Physician, but Scripture and experience tell us that there will be sickness and death until Christ returns or we go to spend eternity with Him in heaven.

As we study this passage we may notice that James is also dealing with the issue of sin and forgiveness. Disobedience to sin can lead to sickness. In Psalm 32 we find that David is sick because he tried to hide his sins. Sin can grow and affect an individual, a family or a whole church. Healing, physical and spiritual can take place when sin is confessed and properly resolved. Please do not misunderstand. Every time we are sick it is NOT because we have committed a specific sin.

James went on to write about Elijah, a man of God whose prayer got results. ¹⁷Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. ¹⁸Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

There is nothing wrong with desiring results from our praying as long as we let God be in charge. What is the third R? Actually we see that the results are dependent upon it.

III. Requirements

Have you ever thought, whose prayers really get results? Do everyone's prayers accomplish the same? If not, upon what are the results dependent? Could God actually have requirements that determine the effectiveness of our praying?

In verse 16 James wrote of effectual, fervent prayers of righteous persons. While these descriptive words may be redundant they express the emphasis on the quality of prayer that God desires. A person who walks uprightly with God cannot fail to pray in a manner acceptable to God.

To illustrate this requirement James mentioned Elijah. We may recall the story from I Kings 17-18. Under wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel Israel had been led away from God to the worship of Baal. For three and a half years they were punished with drought. Then Elijah challenged the priests of Baal and 400 priests cried out to Baal all day long. And received no answer. Elijah prepared his sacrifice, drenched it with water, prayed and sent fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. Following this Elijah fell down before the Lord in prayer and God sent rain.

You might say, "Elijah was a special prophet so we expect God to answer his prayers miraculously. James answered this argument with these words, "Elijah was a man just like us." Yes, my friends, Elijah was righteous, but not perfect. As a matter of fact, do you remember what happened right after this fantastic victory on Mt Carmel? Elijah became frightened and discouraged and ran away. But remember that he was righteous and so must we if our prayers are going to accomplish much. Could that sometimes be our problem? When our lives do not measure up to God's standards we are required to repent and to be restored to our right relationship with God.

I want to close with a story of a young man who did not think he could pray aloud when his high school group did. One night they prayed around the circle and he realized that he was not about to get out of it. He panicked and did something that shocked the youth out of their complacency. He blurted out, "Oh God - I just don't know how to pray aloud. I've never been able to get the hang of it. I love you Lord, and I really want to be able to pray like the others do. But you'll just have to help me."

He proceeded to pour out a prayer in his own words and it was so stumbling, so sincere, so honest, and so completely refreshing that he stopped the little prayer meeting in its tracks. There was a long pause when he finished. And then those who prayed after him completely forgot all the neat little stereotyped prayers they'd made up to say and they just began to pout out their hearts to God in the same simple way he had done. Pat prayers went down the drain.

The amazing part of the story is that it did not stop there. Something had happened and the whole evening went better. They all went home feeling that in some inexplicable way they'd really met God head on, they'd come to grips with the elusive thing they'd always in the past somehow missed.

The next Sunday evening, they asked this young man to start the prayer time, in a sense to teach them how to pray and the effect was electric.

The upshot of a long story was that they began to have Saturday morning prayer meetings. They put legs on their prayers and began to act, to produce, to bear fruit, to obey, and to set that church afire! Things were never the same with that group of high school students from the moment one scared guy admitted that he did not know how to pray and asked God to teach him.

Do we really prefer to bungle our way through life? Or would we be better off to pray? Remember the 3 R's of prayer we talked about this morning.

1. Reasons - In all situations.
2. Results - Expect God to accomplish great things.
3. Requirements - The prayers of the righteous have great power.

Return