Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 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. 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. 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. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. – James 5:13-18 ESV
“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” is how verse 16 reads in the 1611 King James Version (KJV) of this passage. Struck with news that a friend is facing a difficult cancer diagnosis, my thoughts and prayers for him and his young family have been fervent. In the process, I have wrestled with the matter of my own righteousness and how much those thoughts and prayers will availeth. Will my prayers be an advantage, be of worth?
Paul reminds in Ephesians 6:10 that “we wrestle not with flesh and blood.” But sometimes, sometimes we wrestle with our own fleshliness and humanity. What of my own flailing righteousness? I ask myself, “Am I woefully beating against the air or fervently reaching the heavens in prayer?”
I’ve known enough people who have had cancer to appreciate that the term “battle” is inappropriately applied to a circumstance that is not overcome by wrestling with flesh and blood. “Desire to live” must be accepted as a moment-by-moment appreciation for life, more carpe diem – seize the day – than some immeasurable capacity to overcome the internal invader.
Survivor is a term more reflective of decisions made following diagnosis. I haven’t heard anyone suggest a child pulled days later from the wreckage of a building downed by warfare or natural disaster battled more than those who succumbed in the building’s collapse. Instead, we note the wonder of survival. Surviving the crushing nature of the initial diagnosis. Surviving each step of treatment. Surviving treatment into remission. Surviving is indication of neither strength nor weakness, but evidence of remaining present. Living in each moment. Singing or silent.
The KJV Scriptures inform in Isaiah 64:6 that were God to rend the clouds and come down upon the earth today we would find “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” A commentator notes the filthy rags referenced were precursor to the contemporary tampon. That’s about how my righteousness feels when in near desperation I want my prayers to availeth much.
I would prefer to be sitting with my friend, enjoying an ostensibly meaningless debate that will have no influence on the state of the world, than sitting at a distance seeking to meaningfully pray in a way that will have influence on his world; him, wife, and children. [Honouring request no names be public at this time.]
This could be any family. This has been, is, and will be many families. Yes, I know another, and another… Let me take a moment to pray for them. Lord, why does it seem less cumbersome to pray for these? There seems now a rend in the heavens giving these prayers approach.
Though my righteousness is stained as filthy rags I don’t rely on it. I rely instead on the righteousness of the One who shed His blood to cleanse from sin His defiled image-bearers (Genesis 1:27), including me. His blood was shed so that we might become righteous in, to, and before God because of the finished work of the cross and our faith in the same Jesus who was three days later raised from the dead (2 Corinthians 5:21).
In Jesus, the Christ, our prayers do have great power. Not power like asking a genie to grant us our wishes, but power to wrestle with spiritual things, all things, and to influence our own spiritual well-being through construct of certainty that our faith is in Him who was, is, and evermore shall be (Revelation 1:8).
Elders of the church have been called. Tonight, they will pray over my friend and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. Many more of us will pray for his family and his health from a greater distance, including praying that the surgeon and team operating the morning after his anointing will do so with God’s guidance. The distance does not limit Him in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Like Elijah’s experience noted in this passage of Scripture, it may take time. We trust, with confidence, God who answers prayer even though we do not know what His answer will be, or when it will arrive. God’s will be done in earth – we are, after all, first made from the earth (Genesis 2:7) – as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
The prayers with which we seed the heavens give rain, and the earth bears fruit.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 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. 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. 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. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. – James 5:13-18 ESV