17Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. 19My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, 20remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. James 5:17-20
The book of James is all about our faith being lived out in what we do. What do we believe? Well, for one, we believe that Jesus is God’s Son. Well and good, but so what? So what? How do we live, what do we choose to do and not do, based on the fact that we believe Jesus is God’s Son? Some ideas: we choose to follow and do Jesus’ words because they are worth listening to. We walk on Jesus’ path, doing the things he tells us to do.
What do we believe? We believe God hears our prayers. Right and good, but so what? Does that mean we pray? About everything? Elijah did. Elijah, the famous Old Testament prophet, was known as a person of prayer. He prayed on Mount Carmel for fire to descend from heaven and burn up the water-drenched sacrifice. And it happened. He prayed for rain to stop falling on the land, due to the wickedness of the king and the people, and it happened. No rain fell for over three years. Then he prayed for rain and God sent water from the heavens. He prayed for a widow’s son, who had died, and God restored him to life. Do we believe God hears our prayers? Elijah was a person just like us; God heard his prayers. Do we pray like Elijah did, trusting God to hear us?
What do we believe? Do we believe that other people matter? Do they matter to God? Do they matter to us? If they are important to God, then they should be important to us. How then, do we treat them? Do we show others love, do we show them mercy? If someone is wandering away from God’s truth, do they matter enough to us to bring them back? When we see one of our fellow believers wandering, our hearts should ache. Why? Because God’s does. If our love is real, we’ll do everything we can to get our fellow believers back on track. Why? Because that’s what God does. And if someone—maybe your parents, or a teacher, or a friend—tries to get you back on track, then that means that they love you, too.
The end of James is not a closing like most letters– “your friend, James.” Or, “Sincerely, James.” Instead, it is a call to action. A call for our belief to unite with our behavior. We should “do” what we say we believe. In love, we must act. James challenges us to love God by showing love to other people—to the widow and orphan, to our neighbor, to those who oppress us, to fellow believers who stray from the truth. If we love God, we must show that love to other people. James challenges us to live a life of action—of proving with our hands and feet and mouths that what we believe is really true. Will you accept his challenge?
13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? 14He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:13-16
How is prayer like duct tape? It's strong, effective, can be used in many (all) situations, and comes in many colors. Is prayer colorful?
Raise your hand if you breathe. Now, raise your hand if you can tell me why you breathe. Yes, we breathe in order to live. If we stopped breathing, we wouldn’t have oxygen coming into our lungs, after a few minutes our hearts would stop beating, our brain would stop responding, and soon we would no longer be alive. Breathing is vital to life.
In a similar way, praying is vital to our relationship with God. We pray because we need to. Prayer keeps our connection with God strong. Prayer should be something that radiates out of us, that seems to seep from our very pores. It should be natural—we are communicating with the Greatest Being in the universe, the Greatest Being who made the universe, yet he is gracious and compassionate. Like a mother, a father, a friend who is close to us.
Our prayers should be constant. David, King David, who wrote many of the Psalms and who killed the giant Goliath, is a good example of someone who prayed in all circumstances. He prayed when he was scared, when he was angry, when he was joyful, when he wanted revenge, when he wanted forgiveness.
When should we be praying? If we’re in trouble, we cry out to God (James 5:13). David cried out to God many times when he was in trouble—Read portions of Psalm 57 to or with the class.
If we are happy, we should pray. Read portions of Psalm 84.
If we are angry, we should pray. Read Psalm 139:19-24 [note: this is not an easy passage to digest. But what we can share with students is that God wants our honesty. He wants us to share our good moments and our bad moments with him. Whether or not our requests and prayers are valid, he wants to hear them. David is showing remarkable faith in God, to open up his inmost thoughts—and they are not good ones—to God, ask God to take that agony and do something with it.]
David prayed to God in all circumstances. David confessed to God and asked for forgiveness. Read portions of Psalm 51 together. David prayed for peace with his enemies—who were sometimes his own family members. Read Psalm 3. And David prayed to God when he was really, really sad. Read Psalm 89.46-52
Sometimes David prayed to God by himself, and sometimes he prayed as part of a community of believers. Our verses in James encourage us to do the same. We should be praying when we’re in trouble, when we’re happy, when we’re sick, when we’ve sinned. Sometimes we need to be praying on our own. And sometimes, we pray together (v14). And sometimes we need to be praying for each other (v16). James says that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. A righteous person is simply someone who is whole-heartedly committed to God and sincerely seeks to do God’s will. Can that be us? Yes! If we are sincerely seeking God’s will in our prayers, then we pray “God’s will be done…” and trust that God is in control. Let’s pray!
Divide class in half. Make two circles, one inside the other, with people matched up facing each other. Each pair will spend 1 minute each sharing, then 2 minutes praying (4 minutes total).
When the leader closes each section, the inside circle will move clockwise & outside stay, so that partners change. Each person should eventually be with 4 different people. Pray for each other in pairs each time. Leader closes.
1. Share something you are thankful for. Give thanks to God in prayer. rotate
2. Confess to one another. Pray to God for forgiveness for each other. (note: remind students that these are confidential and are not meant to be used against the other person) rotate
3. Share with one another something you want prayer for in your own life. A fear, a struggle, an attitude, a situation, etc. Pray. rotate
4. Share with one another one thing you’d like to pray for another person: a relative, a friend, etc. Someone else who is hurting. Pray for that person.
10Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 12Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No” no, or you will be condemned. James 5:10-12
Ever have one of those days where everything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong? As far as you can tell, it’s the worst day of your week. Your month. Your year. Maybe even the worst day of your life. You wonder if anyone has ever had a day as bad as the one you’re having. Let everyone tell one bad thing that happened to them.
Well, believe it or not, someone did have a worse day. In fact, his day was probably the worst day for anyone in history. The man’s name was Job, and the Bible tells us all about his bad day.
To begin with, Job was a blessed man. We’re going to take a little inventory of what Job had. Job had seven thousand sheep. Job had three thousand camels. And Job had hundreds of oxen and donkey. Now that’s a lot of animals! Job also had 3 daughters and 7 sons. He also had a large number of servants. Job was a millionaire. Maybe even a billionaire!
Yes, everything seemed to be going great in Job’s life, until this one particular day when everything started to fall apart. What’s worse, none of it was his fault! The book of Job tells us that one day, a messenger came to Job and told him that his enemies had attacked and stolen all his oxen and killed all his servants except the one speaking. Then, while the messenger was still speaking, another one came and told Job that all his sheep, donkeys, camels and servants had been killed. Fire came from the sky. Raiding parties attacked. Everything Job had was gone.
But Job’s bad day wasn’t over yet. Another messenger arrived and told Job that a mighty wind had hit the house where his children were, killing all of them, too! How’s that for a bad day?
And even after all of these horrible events, Job was struck with a nasty skin disease, giving him painful sores all over his body. And what was Job’s response in the midst of all these calamities? “Naked I was born and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21-22)
In the midst of the terrible things Job faced, he endured. He persevered. Job did complain bitterly to God, asking God why these bad things happened, asking God to just let him die. But in spite of his problems, in spite of his complaints, Job never abandoned his faith. In the midst of his inability to understand what was happening to him, he clung to God and continued to have hope in God (see Job 19:25-27, etc.).
Job learned what we can know today, too: God is with us when we’re hurting. During hard times, God blesses us when we hold on to him. And the Lord is indeed full of compassion (lit. “suffer together”) and mercy. We see God’s compassion and mercy with what God finally did for Job. Job continued to trust God, and eventually God gave back to Job even more than what Job had before! Job lived another 140 years, and at the end of his life, he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 oxen, 1,000 oxen, and more servants and sons and daughters.
When we suffer, James reminds us, we need to be patient, just like the prophets, and just like Job. We need to “hang in there”, for the Lord will have compassion on us, too. Now obviously, James does not mean that patience in suffering will always be reward with material things, like Job’s animals. Too many examples in the Bible (Jeremiah!) prove this wrong. But James does encourage us to be faithful and persevere during hard times by remembering that our merciful and compassionate God will bless us.
Why do you think James asks us to look to the example of others who suffered? Maybe he wanted to make sure we knew that when we’re faced with tough situations, we know we’re not alone. Maybe James wanted us to tell ourselves, “If Joseph could deal with his brothers selling him into slavery, then I can deal with my brother wearing my new jacket without asking.” Or, “If Noah could put up with the ridicule he faced, I can put up with a few stares in the cafeteria when I bow my head to say grace.” Or, “If Job could bless the Lord even after he lost everything he had, then I can handle the hard things that come my way.” Each of these people persevered because they knew that God was compassionate, was suffering with them, and would bless them. Hang in there!
a great deal of this devotion is from martha bolton’s “if the tongue’s a fire, who needs salsa?” devotions on james.
