Thoughts for another day

April 25, 2007

Today's verse: James 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. (KJV)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

Today’s verse is like most of God’s promises, a simple statement of faith. It states that the ‘prayer of faith’ shall save the sick… The crucial point is ‘prayer of faith’ and most of us do not know how to pray; besides faith is something although we profess to have, we do not exhibit when situations ask for it.

But, when God says that the sick can be saved by, the ‘prayer of faith’, God means it. Ask some of those people who you think are prayerful and have prayed for others or self in the past. You will learn that God has never disappointed them. Prayer and faith are powerful weapons inter-related and working in tandem; not operating in isolation of the other. Like you will pray, only when you have faith. I am not talking here of some mumbling which most of us call prayer, rather a heart to heart connection with God. James mentions exactly that when he refers to prayer, that comes out of faith.

Prayer like they say, can move mountains and God has demonstrated it amply. People have prayed in the past and in faith claimed the thing that they needed, whether for self or for others even while the answer seemed impossible. While praying itself, God puts in our spirit the answer; and long before it happens, we know God has answered our prayer. When you stand in faith, you stand in His Name in firmness, a situation that opens your heart for the supernatural to happen in your life. And when you have that heart to heart connection with God, the supernatural happens. That is why James says, the sick ‘shall’ and not ‘may’ be saved.

In addition to the sickness going away, God in His mercy also forgives the sins of the sick person as we see in the verse. You see, it is God’s will that all be saved. First, the soul then, the body. This is demonstrated by, Jesus when the paralytic is brought through the roof on a stretcher, He first says, ‘Child your sins are forgiven’, Mk. 2:5. For God’s desire is wholeness of life and there is no wholeness of life without forgiveness of sin otherwise it is like treating the symptoms of the disease rather than the disease itself! See the magnificence of God. Experience it for yourself in the ‘prayer of faith.’