13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? 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. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. (James 5)
The all-American response to sickness: stay home and try to recover, and if we get really sick, go to the ER or doctor for help. These are not bad things to do, but we also need to include prayer. The Gospels give us many snapshots of how people who were very sick either came to Jesus, were brought to Jesus, or family members or friends came to Jesus asking Him to come to them (or even heal them from where He was.) Our problem is not that we do not pray for our sicknesses or those of others, but that prayer is not such a natural part of all we do in life that it is not the first response. We also tend to keep our prayers, and our request for prayer impersonal, at a distance. There is very little calling for others to gather around to pray. Finally, not every sickness is directly due to sin, but we should not rule out any connection at all. We often blame God for not answering our prayers for healing, while never considering we might be the problem. God hears and God heals the humble. And if He choses not to heal in this life, we can be sure He has a lesson to be learned as we call out to Him.
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