Our text today is simple and straightforward. And it’s those kinds of texts
that we need to be careful with. It’s so easy to read them and think that we
know what they’re getting at and so to move on to the next verse. We miss
much when we do that. Let’s spend some more time on this portion of
Scripture so that we can see more clearly what the Spirit is saying.
My first thought will be brief. It comes out of the grammar of the sentence.
You’ll notice that the verb is an imperative. That means it’s a command.
James is commanding the saints to pray and to do that for each other. We
need to take that seriously. One of the priorities of Christian living is
our being a group, a community of people who are in this together. There are
many ingredients that come together to establish that as a reality. One of
them is each member of the group praying for the others in the group. James
had a great concern that these saints strengthen their sense of being a
unified group, a church, and that’s why he called them to pray for each
other. The Spirit is saying the same thing to us. He has called us to be a
community of believers. That was built into our conversion. Toward that end,
He is now, again, calling us all to pray for each other. And it’s a command.
You can choose any method you like, but one that is simple to use is our
prayer calendar. Each day there is a family to pray for. If you haven’t
adopted another method I would recommend that you use the calendar and that
you start using it this week.
Let’s take the next step. To do that, I’ll ask a question. You know that you
are supposed to pray for each other. Exactly how should you obey this
command? What are you supposed to pray about? Now some people think that
their prayers for other people are to include things like praying for
restored health when someone is sick or help in dealing with a problem at
the job or sorting out some difficulty at home. Essentially, the point of
praying for other people is to pray for their physical and emotional
well-being. But, to use a phrase from last week, when you boil it down, isn’
t this simply praying for a nice life or at least one that isn’t too hard?
Is that what James had in mind? Is that what praying for each other is
about? I don’t think so. Then, there are others who see this assumption at
work, and they react. They decide that the only thing that they’re going to
pray about are things like knowing your Bible better or developing a bolder
witness. They think praying for other people is about praying for ‘spiritual
’ matters. The rest of life just isn’t that important. But that’s just as
off-base as the thinking of the first group. Then, of course, there are
those folk who pray for both. They have one list of things where they pray
for physical and emotional well-being – health, job and whatnot – and
another list where they pray for ‘spiritual’ things. And that would be just
fine, if people led two unrelated lives, a ‘normal’ life and a ‘spiritual’
life.
In this, as in everything else, the Bible has an answer for our question of
exactly how to pray for each other. Listen to something from the Psalms.
‘Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word.’
[Psalm 119:17] Let’s take that first part for all it’s worth. Let’s pray for
each other that God would bountifully bless. And that includes whatever
physical and emotional well-being means. Isn’t that what the psalmist means
when he writes, ‘He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields
its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does,
he prospers.’ [Psalm 1:3] Let’s pray for that prosperity, understanding that
it means lots more than just really, really, really knowing your Bible well.
It includes health and happiness and good things to enjoy. Let’s pray for
that for each other. But let’s not forget the rest of that verse in Psalm
119: ‘…that your servant may live and keep your word.’ The goal of gaining
this bounty of the blessings of God is not that we get to have a nice life,
or at least one that isn’t too hard. The goal of gaining the bounty is that
we might serve Christ well. Isn’t that the heart and soul of being a
Christian? Isn’t that why we’re here on this earth? Doesn’t that summarize
what the Gospel is about? That we might serve Christ well. And that’s what
we are to pray for when we pray for each other. It’s not just gaining
physical and emotional well-being. It’s not just getting to be super
‘spiritual’. And it’s not even praying for both, side by side. You are to
pray that God would abundantly bless your brothers and sisters so that they
might serve Christ so very well. That’s what your prayers for each other are
to be about.
But, even just a little reflection on this will tell you that doing this
well is not all that easy. ‘Should I ask for God to bless my sister in this
way? Will enjoying this blessing lead to her serving Christ better?’ Praying
well is hard. Praying well requires wisdom. Wisdom is seeing life from God’s
perspective. Or, to say the same thing somewhat differently, wisdom is the
skillful application of the Bible to life. Wisdom is a skill, and it takes
this skill to pray well for others. So, here comes a Christian brother, and
he asks you to pray for him. ‘I have this problem. It’s an impediment to my
being able to serve Christ better than I now can. It limits my
effectiveness. So, I’ve been praying that the Lord would remove this
obstacle. Please pray for this also.’ That sounds like a clear cut case,
until you realize that it’s the Apostle Paul, and he’s talking about what he
called his ‘thorn in the flesh’. He prayed and prayed and prayed that Jesus
would get rid of it. But what did Jesus say? ‘No, Paul. You can serve Me
better with the problem. As you deal with this problem you’ll understand the
power of grace better. That will make you a better servant.’ Who would have
guessed?!? Sometimes, praying that God bless a brother means asking that the
problem plaguing his life not be removed. You recently received an email
describing how three Christian women in Indonesia have been unjustly
convicted of a crime simply by having some children at their Sunday School.
What was the request for prayer? ‘Pray that true justice may be served.’ I
understood that to mean that we should pray that their conviction be
overturned on appeal. Is that request based on wisdom? Maybe it is. But
remember that Paul did a lot of good when he was thrown in jail unjustly.
Because of such injustices the Philippian jailer and his household was
converted, and a whole battalion of Roman soldiers heard the Gospel. The
right thing to pray for may not be what seems obvious at first glance. It
takes wisdom to pray well.
Now, some of you might be discouraged by this. You’re sure that you don’t
have nearly enough wisdom to pray well. But remember what James wrote
earlier. ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously
to all without reproach, and it will be given him.’ [James 1:5] God gives
wisdom to all who ask. It won’t come all at once. It’s a skill to be gained
bit by bit. It’s a skill that the Spirit gives as you give your attention to
the Bible. It takes time, but as you persist in asking God for it and as you
persist in listening to the Word, you will gain the wisdom that you need to
pray well for the folks who are in this room as well as elsewhere.
So, what do we have? There’s the command to pray for each other. There’s the
warrant from Scripture to pray boldly, to ask God to bless bountifully.
There’s the goal of your prayers, powerful servants of Christ. And there’s
the need for – and God’s provision of!! – wisdom to pray for each other
well. Is there anything else you need to consider? Yes, there’s one more
ingredient needed. You cannot pray well for someone else if you don’t know
what’s going on in his life. And he can’t pray well for you if he doesn’t
know what going on in your life. If we are going to be able to obey this
command we’re going to need to know what specifically to pray about. We have
all been taught to be private people to one degree or another. We have been
taught to keep our cards close to our vest and not to hang our laundry out
where others can see it. But it’s awfully hard to pray for someone if you
don’t know the real issues that he is dealing with. Now, I’m not going to
suggest that we set up little groups where we all spill our guts. Instead,
it starts at home. I hope that you husbands and wives are praying for each
other with specific matters in mind. Certainly, husbands and wives should be
open to each other with their lives. ‘The two shall be one flesh.’ But it
needs to go beyond the limits of the family. It is not likely that any of us
will ever get to the place of being equally close with every other person in
this room. But I would hope that there might be some with whom you could be
open and honest. You need others to pray about the things that you are
dealing with. They can’t do that if they don’t know what’s going on. So,
slowly and wisely nurture some friendships so that you can share more and
more of your life with them. And ask them to pray for specific things you
are dealing with. And as you do that, ask them if there are things that you
can pray about for them. You need to obey this text. And, by the grace of
God, step by step, you can.
