Confession, Praryer, and Power

James 5:16

Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

 

If I am suffering, pray.

If I am cheerful, sing praises.

If I am sick, call for the elders and let them pray over me, anointing me with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. What is the prayer of faith? One without any doubt. One that the petitioner is sure that God will answer as he has petitioned, or is it one where the petitioner is willing to accept anything that the Lord gives, healing or sickness. It says here that the Lord will raise him up. Does that mean in His time or at the time of the prayer?

 

Therefore...because of all this and because prayer is the way the Lord works, I must confess my sins to another and pray for others as they confess. Why is this so difficult? Perhaps, because it takes a great deal of humility to admit my sin to another person. My mask must come off and my true ugliness must be revealed. I think that it is in this humility that the Lord is free to work in our lives. My disgust and grief over my sin must be greater than my personal pride.

 

Example in point: Elijah. He had a nature like ours, very human and very weak. Yet when he prayed fervently concerning rain, God answered with both the absence of rain and the presence of rain. The word that I pick up on here is fervently. He prayed fervently. How does that look? Is it more time consuming than the average prayer? Or is it speaking of the intense emotional cry of the heart and soul? Perhaps it could be more than one of these. I think that out of the intense cries of the soul would come greater and greater time spent with the Lord. Anyway, it was from this state that God answered his prayers for the rain to stop and for the rain to begin. Prayer was the key. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Prayer brings me into that close communion with God where I can see myself for who I am, confess my sin, and rejoice in His presence. It is in this state that God can show me His power.

 

Father,

So much about this I don't understand. I ask that you teach me what it means and that you reveal to me my sin. Open my eyes to Your words and Your way. Give me a tender heart that grieves over sin.

In His name,

Amen