THE PRAYER OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN

James 5:16

Morning Meditation 10/4/2012

Verse 16 says, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

How does one overcome the feeling of unworthiness as he prays? No faith will be exercise as long as one bases his expectance of an answer on the change of feelings in this area of his life. If we feel unworthy, how do we change this feeling so that it does not hinder faith? Is the remedy for this found in repeating to ourselves over and over again, “I am worthy? I am worthy?” The fact is, we are not worthy. And our conscience will not allow us to say something in our heart of hearts and change from a feeling of unworthiness to worthiness.

What if we could convince ourselves that we were worthy? So now that we have accomplished that, we now go before the Lord with this feeling of complete worthiness. We make our request of him. We believe with all the faith we can muster together. Will that prayer that is done in the best faith we can summon for this situation gets an answer to our prayer? I am afraid not. We have now become self righteous. We now feel worthy when the Bible definitely teaches that none of us are. So no matter how we feel about it, the facts do not change.

So now we have observed that the feeling of unworthiness is a hindrance to faith. This brings us to the text on which today’s meditation is based. Let’s take a look at what James is saying.

James has just gotten through telling his readers what to do in the case of serious illness in verses 14-15. Our present text is an affirmative statement of what the believer can expect as a result of the prayer of faith. The prayer of faith does not only apply to praying for the sick but also, James says it “availeth much.” Let’s take this verse apart. First of all, let’s look at,

THE URGENCY WITH WHICH JAMES AFFIRMS THIS TRUTH

The word “Confess” translates “exomologeo” and means, “to confess, to acknowledge openly and joyfully.” This Greek word is actually made up of three words, “ek” which means, “out of,” and, “homou” which means, “Together with,” and “logos’ which means, “a word uttered by a living voice.” So to confess means that one is coming out openly in his agreement with another. With whom is he agreeing? About what is he agreeing. We will see. But before we do, lets look at the verb. It is a present middle imperative. The present tense means that he is speaking in the present tense to those to whom he is writing. This means that the application of this truth is NOW. It is middle voice. This means that those who will respond to the teachings of this passage will not only be used as instruments of God to help others but they themselves will be helped in the process. The imperative mood means that it is a command and expresses urgency. Prayer is the life line between the unseen God and His children on earth. Without answers to prayer, God is only someone we talk about who might or might not exist. There is evidence of Him in creation. The evidence is strong enough to support Genesis 1:1 and refute evolution. But how do we know that God did not create it and then die? Is God still alive? Prayer proves His present existence and interest in us. It proves His willingness to involve Himself in our lives in the present. James is saying to us as believers that it is imperative that we confess our faults one to another because this precedes the kind of answers to prayer that we need.

Now he does not only give us a command that expresses urgency but also,

HE IDENTIFIES THE TRUTH HE COMMANDS

He says, “confess your faults.” The word “faults” translates “paraptoma” and is from a word that is made up of two words, “para” meaning, “beside or near,” and, “pipto” meaning, “to descend from a higher place to a lower, to descend from an erect position to a prostrate position, i.e. to fall flat on one’s face.” When one falls on his face he is always near where he fell from this standpoint: he does not progress in his Christian maturity until he has “confessed” his “faults” and they have been removed by the cleansing of the blood of Christ (1 John 1:9). Pride must be dealt with in every Christian’s life. This is one of the ways the Lord gives us to deal with pride. It is to have someone to whom you make yourself accountable. It may be a wife, a pastor, or a church leader, or someone that you can confide in. But it is a way to admit to another that you are far from perfect and agree with God that you fell flat on your face is this matter or that. This is humbling. But this is the mind of Christ. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto the death of the cross (Phil. 2:5-8). You see this takes care of the feeling of unworthiness. If you feel unworthy, it is because you are. That is the truth. Next James speaks of,

CONCERN FOR ONE ANOTHER

He says, “pray one for another.” This translates “euchomai” and means, “to pray to God” and is a present middle imperative verb. This means in the present tense that we should keep one another on each others prayer lists for daily prayer. We will be helped ourselves by doing it (middle voice). The imperative mood means that it is urgent. First, it is urgent that we recover quickly from our falls. The prayers of others will help in this. Second, I do not think any of us realize the danger that we are constantly in with the powers of darkness. We may have had more CLOSE CALLS than we know about. And it may have been the prayers of others who prayed for us in obedience to this command that saved us. They may not have had that strange feeling that we needed prayer but they prayed knowing that we are told to do it. If we wait for STRANGE FEELINGS, we will do very little praying. Satan’s world and his attack on us is real and the power of prayer against him is real. We should be concerned for one another and pray one for another without FEELING A THING but simply because WE ARE COMMANDED TO. Then next we see,

THE MIRACLE THAT IS TO BE EXPECTED

The words “that ye may be healed” bring this out. The words, “ye may be healed” translate “iaomai” and mean, “to cure, to heal, to free from errors and sins, to bring about (one's) salvation (not necessarily the salvation of the soul but from a bad situation).” This is an aorist passive subjunctive verb. This means that the prayer’s intent and possibility (subjunctive mood) is for sudden healing (aorist tense). If this is a sickness or situation that is put there to correct us, it will be removed through the process of agreeing that the fall was our fault, that we truly missed it, and we blame no one but ourselves, we confess it and receive forgiveness, and now those to whom we confess pray and the sickness or situation is removed. The subjunctive mood means that healing is possible. There are those who do not believe that healing is possible SUDDENLY. They do the same thing unsaved people do. They go to the doctor and trust him and his judgment and many times are healed through this process. There is healing there no doubt. I have been healed that way. I’m not opposing that at all. I pray daily for my doctors. And I can subscribe to the idea that all healing is of the Lord. But the question here is is this talking about sudden miraculous healing or not? I believe this verse teaches that a direct appeal to God is an option for a Christian. Help is obtainable from the Lord directly through the CHURCH (James 1:14). Then next we see,

THE EFFECT OF IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS

Righteousness is a word that is used in many ways in the Bible. I want to mention two. First, there is self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is defined in Philippians 3:9: “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Self-righteousness is what one has when he feels worthy because of his obedience to the Lord. He may be faithful in Church attendance, give a lot of money, or participate in the outreach program of the church. It may be something else. But it makes one feel that, “I don’t ask the Lord for much, I have been faithful to him, and I believe I should get this answer to prayer.” If one feels this way, he will pray with what he believes to be real faith. He is not hindered with the feeling of unworthiness. But his faith is faulty. He is not coming before God in an acceptable righteousness. He is unworthy and is not facing it.

The second kind of righteousness is imputed righteousness. This is the righteousness given to every believer at salvation (Rom. 5:17). It is the TRUTH by which we obtain answers to prayer. When I come before God, I do not ask Him to reward my righteousness, I ask Him to give me what Christ deserves (this is what grace is). 1 Cor. 1:30-31 says, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” Glory to God someone hold my mules, it’s shouting time! I can come with boldness, as unworthy as I am, because I come in His righteousness (praying in His Name). The feeling of unworthiness is assumed at the throne of grace and is not a hindrance. When that feeling comes, we admit that it is the truth, we are unworthy. And we continue our prayer, “Lord, I do not come in my unworthy name, I come in His.” Then James reveals,

THE POWER OF THE PRAYER THAT AVAILS

The words, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James says this is “effectual” praying, it is “fervent” praying, and it “avails.” The word “availeth” translates “ischuo” and means, “to be strong, to have power, to have power as shown by extraordinary deeds.” It is a present active indicative verb. James is not talking about something that is out there in the future for those to whom he is writing. He is addressing believers in his day about something that could happen in their time. What James wrote to them is for us today. Things were changing in that day. Jesus had given His apostles the power to work instant miracles like the one Peter and John worked at the gate called beautiful in Acts chapter 3. James does not tell them to go to someone with the gift of healing. He tells them to do this in the church. I believe this is the option that we have as Christians. This way we are accountable to one another and dependent on one another. God has a way, if we will submit to it, to keep us right and live supernaturally every day of our lives! The word “much” in “availeth much” translates, “polus” and means, “many, much, large.” How would you like “many” answers to prayer? How would you like “much” in answer to prayer? How would you like “large” answers to prayer? This is what James says we can have.

May the Lord bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Bro. White