Prayer and Faith

Jas 5:13  Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 

Jas 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 

Jas 5:15  And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 

Jas 5:16  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. 

Jas 5:17  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 

Jas 5:18  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 

Afflicted? Pray.

Merry? Sing psalms.

Sick? Receive prayer and anointing.

Confess, pray, be healed.

Fervent prayer-righteous- gets results.

However- our prayers have to be in accordance with the will of God, not ours.  We mistake our wants, our needs, our desperate desires for the will of God and we pray for things as if they must be answered as we desire. If our prayer of faith goes seemingly unanswered, is it because our imagined idea of the best answer isn't God's way? Our heart aches for the things that we go through, fair and unfair. Circumstances beyond our control often cause us pain. And sometimes we do things wrong and regret the wrong when consequences come to pass. We cry out for help from God and when nothing changes and bad things still come to pass, and things get worse and worse we can't figure out why our prayers go unanswered.

We read about prayers being answered- 'the prayer of faith shall save the sick'  and yet we pray, and pray, and pray and our loved one- be it a baby, a child, a teenager, a young adult, or any loved one or friend, even strangers- remain sick, we doubt our faith. We lament our failings, we are dismayed by our inability to have the faith in this verse that tells us 'the prayer of faith shall save the sick'. 

Is it always our lack of faith that keeps the sick from being saved? Did none die when Jesus walked the earth during His ministering years? We know Lazarus died and was brought back, but we don't read that no one died at all during the three years He went about healing. We do know people beyond number were healed, and surely He kept people from dying, a lot of people. But something as sensational as no one dying during Jesus' ministry would be remarked upon.  Not all had faith. Jesus asked more than one person before healing them if they had faith.

Mat_9:22  But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

Mat_9:29  Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you

Mar_2:5  When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

Mar_5:34  And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Mar 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. 

Mar 9:24  And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. 

Mar 9:25  When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. 

Mar 9:26  And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. 

Mar 9:27  But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. 

Mat_9:28  And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

Luk 8:49  While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. 

Luk 8:50  But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole. 

Having faith, having belief is paramount, but knowing God's will is what we are having faith in is so important.  Our belief is in God, our belief is in our Savior, our belief isn't in our own faith or our ability to have faith. Remember what was written above- the father said- 'help thou my unbelief'.   We do believe, but we can't trust our belief, we need to trust in God.

God's will be done first and foremost. God's will.

We know this--

Luk_18:8  … Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

More on this tomorrow by the will, and the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!