2026 Gospel Meeting I ”A Faith That Prays” I Travis Wise - 8/5/26

If you have your Bibles with you, turn

in them to James chapter 5. James

James 5 · chapter mention James 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. We will be reading from there

in just a moment. James chapter 5. It's

James 5 · chapter mention

good to be with you and I thank you all

for inviting me and having me here to

speak. It's it's one of those things

where uh you you always know in God's

church that going to new places or

places that you haven't been, you're

going to meet new people, but you're

also going to see old friends. You're

also going to see people that you didn't

know were old friends, but they knew you

when you were littleer and all all

things like that. So, it's good to to be

with you guys. James chapter 5, I'll be

James 5 · chapter mention

reading from that in just a moment.

Starting in verse 13,

the name John Bunan is not a name that

most of us are familiar with anymore. It

used to actually be a household name

throughout the English-speaking world.

And a lot of that was because of his

book, The Pilgrim's Progress, which was

a book written as an allegory for the

Christian life and journey toward

heaven. But John Bunan, he lived in the

1600s and he was known in his time both

as a writer and also as a preacher. But

John Bunan was someone who knew the

importance of prayer.

Bunan has a quote that stuck with me for

a number of years that goes like this

that prayer will make a man cease from

sin or sin will entice a man to cease

from prayer. Prayer will make a man

cease from sin or sin will entice a man

to cease from prayer. See, Bunan knew a

truth about human nature and about how

we act. That we are what we do most of

the time and how we live and how we act.

That's what's going to come to define

us. It's not about what you say that

you're going to do. And it's not about

what you say that you believe that

defines who you are. It comes down to

how you live and how you act and what we

engage in most the time that's going to

have an effect on the other things that

we do in our lives. Whether it's sin

that we engage in over and over and over

that just seeps away our desire to pray

and go to God or whether it's living a

life of ceaseless prayer to God that

helps us in our walk with Jesus Christ

to stay away from sin. Now, John Bunan,

he's not unique in that thought because

it's roughly 1600 years before John

Bunan was even born that the brother of

Jesus Christ, James, the one who writes

this letter that you've been studying uh

through all this week, he writes over

and over about the things that we do,

not just here, but the things that we

do. Those are the things that define who

we are as Christians and followers of

God. And in this letter in which he

talks about not just being hearers but

doers as well. The final thing that he

closes on is instruction on prayer. I

want you to begin with me in verse 13 of

James chapter 5:13. And I want you to

just notice in these verses how many

times the word prayer comes up. James

James 5:13

5:13. 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.

Over and over. These are six verses.

Over and over. James says prayer

some version of that. Over and over and

over again.

I counted about seven times in six

verses. You think if James is going to

close out with this, prayer probably

matters quite a lot to James. Prayer

matters quite a lot to what it means to

be a Christian and how we should live

the fact that we're able to communicate

to God in prayer. We need to be able to

embody this in our lives. And so for the

time that we have today, just closing

out the book of James and in what's

being said here, I want to talk about

the power of prayer, the practice of

prayer, and also the patience that we

need to have in prayer. Let's talk with

about the power of prayer. First, again,

James begins this way. He talks about

prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer. He

closes out the letter with that. Now,

he's talked about prayer earlier in the

book of James, but it's especially, you

know, sometimes we talk about saving the

best for last. If you want someone to

remember a point, you save it for the

last. In James, for all the things that

he said, all the things that are

important, he says, do not forget this.

Do not forget to pray.

You know, it should remind us that

in our time, prayer is one of those

things that tends to be one of those

issues where we always wish we did

better.

Most of you here, I haven't gotten to

meet you. Uh, or if I have met you, it

was just now for the first time. But I

bet

if any of you ever did any resolutions

for New Year's, there were some

resolutions that had to deal with, I

would like to pray more. I would like to

spend more time in prayer. I bet if I

sent a survey out to everyone here and

asked, "What are the things that you

would most like to improve in your

Christian walk with God?" Prayer is

going to be probably the most popular

response. That would be my guess.

But if James is talking about prayer,

prayer, prayer here, you know what he's

saying or what we should get from that,

we should get from that that Christians

in the first century, they're not

different than Christians now. They're

not different from you and me. James, if

prayer was just easy for all of them, he

wouldn't have to say, "Pray, pray, and

keep praying."

But one of the ways that James is trying

to encourage them to pray is by

reminding them of the power of prayer.

He says, "Are you suffering?" Verse 13,

here's the answer. Pray. Verse 14, are

you sick? Here's the answer. Pray. Verse

15, he says, "What prayer will do, it'll

save the one who is sick and the Lord

will raise him up." He goes on to talk

about uh if one has committed sins, they

will be forgiven. So, he's not just

talking about God and our prayer to him

that heals us from physical sickness,

but also spiritually. Pray to God for

spiritual things as well. Pray, pray,

pray. And in verse 17, he talks about

Elijah. He gives an example of Elijah

that Elijah, it's a story from back in

at the end of first kings when Elijah in

the days of Ahab, you remember the

wicked king Ahab. And you remember

Israel, it was during these days at the

northern kingdom of Israel was serving

the god well the false god Baal. And

Elijah,

he prayed as a sign that it wouldn't

rain. and it didn't rain for three and a

half years until he prayed to God again

for it to rain.

And James uses as an example for us. And

of course, we might hear that and we

say, "Ah, it's easy for him to say and

it's easy for Elijah to do because he

was a prophet and all of these things."

But James James knows what we're going

to think. James knows we would say that.

And what he says in verse 17 is Elijah

was a man with a nature like ours.

He's saying Elijah was just every bit a

human being as you and me. And if

there's a difference at all between us,

it's that he knew the power of prayer.

You know, I think this is one of the

things that's really hard for us. And

when we talk about having a faith that

prays,

and that's really what we're speaking

about today is a faith that prays,

we have to have faith in the power of

prayer. And I think sometimes when we

find ourselves in life not praying like

we should, a lot of times it's because

maybe we just underestimate or doubt the

power that our prayers have.

You know, and some of this is is

understandable from a human point of

view because it takes a tremendous

amount of faith to pray when once we

pray to God and when we pray to God, we

don't understand exactly how our prayers

are considered or how they're weighed

and we don't always understand what goes

into how God answers our prayers.

I think sometimes it's easy for us to

even when our prayers are answered. I

think it's easy for us to have some

doubt creep in too. You ever had that

happen? You've prayed for someone who is

sick.

And what do you know? They're healed.

And there's that doubt in the back of

your mind when you think of the prayer

and you still thank God for for healing

them. But you also think, well, there's

people that get sick all the time and it

doesn't seem like people pray for them

and they get better. What effect did my

prayer really have there? It's easy for

us to think when we know that we should

be praying for people who are in sin.

It's easy for us to doubt and be

discouraged and think, well, they're

completely turned away from God and

God's not going to force them to turn

around. Or is he? I I don't think that's

how things work.

And so we have doubts or we can have

doubts in which because we don't

understand exactly how God could answer

our prayer or how God works since we

don't see exactly how God considers and

weighs and answers our prayers. It's

easy for us sometimes to just forget to

pray. But you know there's a lot of

things in life where you don't have to

understand how it works for us to

understand the power behind it.

I don't you pull up the the the car hood

of the van that we drove here. I have no

idea how that engine works. And I

imagine a bunch of you guys don't know

how exactly that engine works either.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if

some car mechanics didn't know exactly

how an engine works. They just know that

it works and they know what pieces go

where to fix it to make sure that it

works. That's a complex question. How

does something work? You don't have to

understand how an engine works to

understand the power that it has.

Most of us don't understand how a

hurricane works,

but we know to get out of the way of the

hurricane when it's coming our way. We

know the power of a hurricane. You think

about prayer. We don't have to

understand exactly how God works through

prayer to understand that I need to pray

because God says he does work through

prayer.

There's power in prayer and prayer is

powerful. Or maybe I should just alter

that a little bit that it's not so much

that prayer itself is powerful as if

once we pray to God, we get to

manipulate God to how we want. Prayer is

powerful because God is powerful. Prayer

is powerful because when we go in

prayer, we're speaking to God. We're

speaking to the one who was there in the

beginning, who created man and woman out

of dust, who created us out of dust, who

created everything from nothing. And

it's through prayer that we get to speak

to him. And it's through prayer that God

says, "I want to hear from you in

prayer." And we see time and time again

through scripture that God cares about

his people and loves his people. That

God is powerful. That his love for us is

powerful. And when we go to him in

prayer,

God over and over is moved to act for

his people. When they're sick, when

they're in sin and need to be healed

from it, when they need guidance over

and over,

God listens and he responds.

But if we know the power of prayer, what

James wants us to recognize as well is

we need to put in place the practice of

prayer. So I want you to go back right

here in James chapter 5 uh in verse 13

James 5 · chapter mention

onward. And I just want you to recognize

that every time that James is talking

about the power of prayer, he's not just

talking about p the power of prayer just

so we could be a little bit smarter. You

know, sometimes teachers do that. They

they talk to you about something and it

has no relevance to your daytoday life.

It's just a bunch of empty knowledge.

But James is saying, I want you to know

how powerful prayer is because you need

to pray. It's not just that

prayer can help someone who is

suffering. But he says you pray. Is

anyone among you suffering? Then pray.

If someone is sick, he says the elders

should pray. He says in verse 16, you

need to pray for one another. Over and

over, it's not just that prayer is

powerful, but it's that you need to

pray. You need to practice prayer.

But when

on one hand, he's talking about

practicing prayer

especially when prayer is needed when

we're suffering or when we're sick

during all of these different times.

He's saying there are situations in

which the first thing you need to do is

drop to your knees and go to God in

prayer.

He's also encouraging us to practice it

regularly. And I know that because

unless we're doing prayer on a regular

basis, there's going to be times and

situations in which we need to pray. But

unless we make a regular practice of

speaking to God,

we're very likely to forget to pray or

not pray when we really, really need to.

Let me give you an example. It reminds

me a little bit of something I've

observed just in workplaces in the past

and bosses and their workers or

employers and their employees. There's

different relationships that uh they can

have with one another, but at least in

my observation, uh the best types of

bosses have been bosses that have kept

open lines of communication

with their workers. In part because this

is also good for the boss because there

are times when the boss needs to know

things that are happening on the ground,

but unless those lines of communication

are open, he's just not going to hear

those things. For the best bosses, they

keep those lines of communication open.

And keeping those lines of communication

open between the employer and his

employees, it's more than just having a

sign on the the office door that says

you can bring your complaints here. It's

more than just an employer or a boss

coming to his employee and saying, you

know, you can always talk to me. You

know, this this is something you've been

told before. People come to you all the

time and they say, "You can talk to me.

You can bring questions to me if you

ever have them." But if that's the only

time you ever see them, you might have

questions, but you're you're never going

to go to them just because they said

that one small thing to you. But the

type of boss that checks in on his

workers, who has lunch with his workers,

who takes time to see how they are

doing. That's a type of boss that when a

worker or something comes up, they know,

hey, I know my boss is not just my boss,

but there's a relationship that we have

that I can go to him once something

comes up.

You know, it's funny in those types of

relationships, I've seen bosses, there's

there's been issues which if their

employers employees had told them about

what was going on, it would have saved

the boss a lot of grief. But once the

big catastrophe happens, the boss who

was never talking with his employees

before freaks out and says, "Why didn't

anybody tell me?" And I'll tell you why

you didn't tell. No one told you because

you never talked to him at any other

time. So, they're not going to go to you

when there might be a problem. And you

know, our prayer lives can be like that.

Not because I'm not making the analogy

that God's our employer and we're the

employee. That's not how the analogy

works. But the analogy works in this

type of way that if we ourselves, God

himself has made himself open to

communication from us. But if we're not

going to him, if we're not taking

advantage of that and going to him on a

regular basis in prayer, speaking to him

daily,

then what happens when something big

comes up in our life, something that we

absolutely need to pray for?

It's kind of funny. We might actually

forget to pray for it.

You know, it's it's it's better,

you know, some sometimes I think a lot

of us can fall into this trap where we

only find ourselves praying when

something big comes up in our life and

we fail to talk to God all of the other

times in our life. And that's something

that needs to be addressed, too. That we

know this as parents. It's it it kind of

gets annoying when your kids only come

to you when they're needy for something.

But you know what? I'll take that over

my kids never coming to me at all. We do

need to solve the problem of going to

God daily, but we also need to make sure

that we go to God when big things come

up in our life. But the problem is if

we're not going to him daily, we might

lose our job. And our first thought

isn't, I need to get on my knees and

pray. It's I need to find other ways to

get employment.

When something comes up with our health,

instead of going to God first, our first

thoughts are, I need to find the right

doctor right now.

It's like a lot of things in life when

we talk about the practice of prayer, we

want shortcuts. We always want

shortcuts. We want to have great quality

time with God. We want to be able to go

to God in prayer at the drop of a hat

and have good prayer and a good prayer

life that we can come away from feeling

refreshed. And we're discouraged when we

go to God in prayer and we don't always

know the words to say or it's hard for

us to pray.

And maybe sometimes we forget that the

only way to have quality prayer with God

is to have quantity prayer. A lot of

times we tend to think that quantity and

quality are two different things. But at

least within relationships with people

and with God as well, the only way you

have a quality relationship is if you

spend quantity time with him.

It works that way in our families. If

you think about it,

there's never been a time in which you

sit down with your family and say,

"Kids,

right now in five minutes, we're going

to make a memory. We're going to have

quality time in five minutes. we're

going to do something that we're going

to remember for the rest of our life.

It didn't happen. If you think back at

your life and you think about the

favorite memories that you have of your

parents or your kids or your brothers or

sisters or your best friends,

there are a lot of times that you've

forgotten with those people. But it's

because you spent so much time with

those people. There were times that came

up in which you had a conversation that

you wouldn't have expected to have it,

but there's something about that

conversation that you just remember.

Something funny came up because you

spent quantity time with the people that

you love. And it only came because you

spent time with them all the time

that you can reflect on funny events

that happen that you could never have

planned at all.

You think about our prayer life, it's

the same way. The only way that we're

going to have quality prayer is when we

spend time in quantity prayer,

we're going to have a good prayer life

with God,

it's going to come from spending time

often in prayer with God. We need to put

prayer in practice.

I guess this is where it gets really

hard for us and it's hard always. It can

always be difficult

because

we can look at prayer and we can say I

know prayer is powerful. We can look at

prayer and say I need to put it in

practice.

But it takes a lot of patience to pray

and to pray often and to even pray when

it doesn't seem our prayers are being

answered.

It's patience that can be hard for us.

There's a lot of things in life that we

know the power of them, but because we

don't have the patience to do them, they

never get done.

In our lives, there might have been

times in our lives where we have said,

"I need to get in shape." And everybody

knows exactly what it takes to get in

shape. You have to eat the right things

and you have to stay active. It's very

simple. There's no other factors that

fall into that. But you you eat the

right things and you stay active.

And that's something that's easy to do

for day one or day two. But to do that

for 365 days out of the year, that's

asking a lot. That's a lot of patience.

You can know the power in something,

but it can be hard to put it into

practice because it takes patience and

it takes that diligence.

If there's ever a skill, maybe maybe at

one time you tried to learn something

new. uh you tried to learn a new

language or a new skill and you had all

the enthusiasm that comes early on from

saying I'm going to learn this thing now

but after seven days of that after a

week maybe even before that that

enthusiasm dries up and that's where you

have to have that patience to stick with

it and stick with the hard boring parts

of learning that new thing

and you know there's power in practice

but if you don't have the patience to

stick with that practice you're just not

going to learn what you wanted to learn.

I think it's the same with prayer. I

think for many of us, especially if

we've been Christians for a long enough

period of time, we tend to know the

power in prayer. Not just because we can

look in the Bible, which is a big thing

in itself. It's not just that we can

look in the Bible and see how prayer was

powerful, but I think there's a lot of

us here that just from our personal

lives and the prayers that we've prayed

that we can think back to specific times

in which we've prayed for someone and

God didn't just answer the prayer, but

God answered that prayer in a way that

we didn't really even have the faith

that he would have done that in the

first place.

There's a lot of situations in which

this could have happened. Maybe someone

received a bad diagnosis and we prayed

and we prayed and we prayed and next

time they go to the doctor uh the

diagnosis has changed where there's been

a massive improvement and the doctors

themselves don't know how did this even

happen but you know I prayed

maybe it was like a terminal illness and

maybe the terminal illness you pray and

pray and pray and the terminal illness

is never removed it never goes away. But

someone who was only given months to

live ends up having a lot more time than

they were given by the doctors at the

beginning. And you thank God because you

know that was him. That was the power of

prayer.

Maybe it was

a couple

that

had been trying to have kids for a long

time and they couldn't have kids and

they didn't think they ever would have

kids and you prayed and they didn't have

kids until you least expected it. And

that prayer maybe almost as if it had

just got caught in heaven and not

answered for a while or at least got

answered when you least expected it. I

get pregnant and never would have

thought it.

You know, I think we have all kinds of

stories. I'm sure that we have more

stories like that in which we've prayed

and prayed and prayed for things and we

see and we've recognized the power of

prayer in our lives.

It's important to point out that it

doesn't always work out that way.

But it does work out that way often

enough that I think many of us can see

that prayer has had an effect and the

world would be different than it is

right now if I hadn't have prayed, if

Christians hadn't have prayed.

But James, when he talks about prayer, I

want you to recognize that he talks

about it being something that we have to

be patient with. In verse 17 of chapter

5, he says, "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." He uses that

word fervently or I think other

translations will say earnestly. He

didn't just pray once and said, "I'll

leave it up to God then." But he prayed

and prayed and prayed. The section that

just leads right into the section on

prayer. If we start back at James 5:7, I

James 5:7

want you to pay attention to how often

he uses that word patience or related

words like endurance or longsuffering.

There he says in James 5:7, he says, "Be

James 5:7

patient, therefore, brothers, until the

coming of the Lord." See how the farmer

waits for the precious fruit of the

earth, being patient about it until it

receives the early and the late reigns.

You also be patient. Establish your

hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at

hand. Do not grumble against one

another, brother, so that you may not be

judged. Behold, the judge is standing at

the door. As an example of suffering and

patience, brothers, take the prophets

who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we consider those blessed who

remain steadfast. You have heard of the

steadfastness of Job and you have seen

the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is

compassionate and merciful.

Right before James begins to talk about

prayer,

he talks about be patient like Job, be

patient like the prophets, be patient

until Jesus Christ returns.

When he starts talking about prayer, he

still wants us to be thinking about this

is something that requires patience. And

when we talk about a faith that prays,

we need patience because patience

absolutely it comes from faith.

We can talk about this from a couple

angles that first of all, we need to

have faith that our unanswered prayers

are for the best, which might be one of

the hardest things for us to do. That's

one of the reasons that we get get

discouraged in our prayer life. But we

need to have faith that when our prayers

are unanswered,

God still knows what he's doing and it's

for the best.

When we talk about unanswered prayer,

that might actually,

in my opinion, I think it's actually a

little bit of a wrong term, a little bit

of a you can call it a misnomer because

I think all prayers are answered. They

just aren't always answered the way that

we like.

God I I I would say that God answers

prayer in three ways. He says yes,

he says no, or God says wait.

I think God answers all of our prayers.

It's just that when we hear a no, and

especially also when we hear a wait, we

don't like those answers. We call that

unanswered prayer. We need to have

faith.

that sometimes why God doesn't answer

our prayers maybe we're asking for the

wrong thing but God who knows what we

need

is going to answer it the right way we

need to have faith that when God says no

or wait that it's for the best even if

we don't see why that's the case

[snorts] let me give you an example or a

story I heard a story once of a preacher

who uh when he was in college. He was

engaged to a a woman that he loved

dearly. And they were engaged to be

married. And this woman that he loved

dearly uh sometime before the marriage,

she called it off. She said, "We're not

going to get married." And so this

preacher, he himself was heartbroken

over this. He loved her. He had imagined

spending his entire life with her. And

he prayed and he prayed and he prayed to

God, please,

please fix this. Please bring this back

together. Please

help it so that we can

come back to to how things were and that

this marriage can go through that we can

spend our lives together.

And he prayed and he prayed and he

prayed about that. And you know what God

said?

God didn't say wait.

He also didn't say yes. God just said

no.

He didn't end up marrying uh that that

that woman and they ended up going their

separate ways. And it was a little bit

after that that he met someone else that

he became married to and they ended up

having a family and a happy family. And

it was maybe about 20 25 years later uh

where at some type of reunion he met up

with his former fiance just at some

gathering where they ran into each other

and they caught up after I guess decades

of never having really spoken or or

talked and as far as I know and I

understood it was a it was a good

conversation. They enjoyed catching up.

We said that the first thing that he did

when he got home is he dropped down on

his knees and he said, "Thank you. Thank

you. Thank you, God, for not answering

my prayers all those years ago." And I

don't even know that it was particularly

that there was something wrong with his

former fiance, but he just realized that

there was a reason that those prayers

that he had prayed weren't answered. And

he was thankful to God from the bottom

of his heart that God knew what was best

for him. even if he didn't know that at

the time.

You know, I think in our life,

this is one of the hardest parts for us

in prayer

that we have to have faith that God

knows the right answer even when that

answer doesn't seem right to us. And you

know, this is the thing. I might be up

here teaching on this and preaching on

this, but I don't know the reason why

God doesn't answer some prayers. There's

prayers in my life which I'm wondering,

God, are you telling me to wait or is it

just a plain no? And if it's a plain no,

why is it a no? And if it's a wait, how

long am I going to have to wait for

this? You have that thought, too.

So, so I I can't I can't uh I can't

pretend to act as if I know that these

are the answers for our prayers

sometimes, but

at least thinking about what scripture

says about some of these things.

I think it could be

maybe sometimes when we go to God in

prayer and we are suffering in our life

and we ask God, "God, I can't stand

this. I can't take it. Please get this

off my plate.

Maybe one of the reason God says not yet

is because he knows that we actually can

[snorts] take it with his help. And also

maybe if you ever think of this, maybe

some of the reasons that he lets us go

through the suffering that we go through

even when we don't feel that we can take

it is because God knows, we don't know

this, but God knows that down the line

there's going to be someone that's

suffering as bad as we are or maybe even

worse. But if we go through what we go

through, we can actually help them.

Maybe sometimes when

we pray to God because we missed out on

the job that we were aiming for, that we

worked hard for, we don't get the

promotion that we thought that we

deserve based on our our record and

everything like that. Maybe the reason

God said no

is because he sees further down the line

than we do. maybe us getting that job or

getting that promotion,

it wasn't going to work out best for us.

It wasn't going to be in our best

interest at the end of the day for

whatever reason it is. Whether because

it would have taken time away from our

family or down the line it would have

taken us away from where we live and who

we know.

This is really hard. There's times in

all of our lives where we've prayed for

someone

that needs healing. Someone that we love

about, that we love, that we care about,

someone who's sick, and someone who's

dying.

And again, I don't know the exact reason

why God doesn't answer. He answers some

of those prayers with a yes,

but he doesn't answer all of those

prayers with a yes. But I know it's not

because he doesn't love us, and I know

it's not because he doesn't love the

people that we care about.

But maybe at least part of it is because

in a way that we don't comprehend and we

don't understand ourselves,

it's our God who recognizes that our

bodies that are just not built for

eternity.

There's a bigger healing

that he can give us. There's a bigger

healing that he will give to us in the

resurrection when Jesus Christ returns.

That there's a healing far beyond

anything that we can comprehend or

imagine right here and right now that's

waiting for us. an eternal weight of

glory beyond all comparison

that again when we go through the

suffering which Paul calls light and

momentary but it doesn't feel light

momentary

but when we go through that suffering

Paul tells us the Bible tells us we're

reminded over and over and over again

that maybe we could say it this way that

every time that we pray for God to heal

us when we pray to God to heal our

bodies sometimes God's answer it's not

actually no. And even even after death,

the answer is not no. It's just wait.

Wait for the resurrection. Wait for the

true healing. Wait for that time when

all things will be writed and all tears

will be taken away.

We need to reflect on the fact that not

all of our prayers are going to be

answered in this lifetime.

And I think even here in James chapter

James 5 · chapter mention

5, even though as we read it on the

surface it seems to very much talk about

things like suffering and uh sickness

which seem to do with this life. Right

there in verse 15

when he says the prayer of faith will

save the one who is sick and the Lord

will raise him up.

You know that language talking about the

Lord will raise him up and the Lord will

raise us up. Again, on one hand, on a

first pass through, I think it's very

easy to take that just from the

standpoint of if I'm sick and I pray to

God, he'll heal me of my sickness,

but it's also the Bible that promises a

resurrection on the other side of death,

eternal life on the other side of death.

A resurrection from death into life

into bodies that are meant for eternity.

I read James chapter 5:15.

One of the things I think about is I

don't know if James is just talking

about prayers in this life, but he's

talking about our prayers for one

another that even when they don't seem

as if they're going to be answered or

could be answered,

there's a heaven that we're waiting for,

there's a destination that we're waiting

for in which they'll be answered in a

way that we couldn't have comprehended

or expected or understood on this side

of eternity,

you know. And this is the Christian

life. This is how things often work out

for us. That we look at life and there's

sin that makes things messy. There's

death that comes up at all of the wrong

times. And never we never want death,

but but it always comes up uh and

surprises us.

Satan's constantly acting in the world.

But it's the Christian life that says,

"I'm going to keep journeying and I'm

journeying to something." I mentioned

John Bunan in his uh his quote at the

very beginning and he's famous for the

book that he wrote on the Christian

journey called The Pilgrim's Progress.

It's all about the Christian journey to

what he calls the celestial city. And

that's what our journey is that we see

and there are obstacles in our way. We

press on, we go past them. And if you

want to talk about the type of prayer

that maybe we need to pray more than

anything, it's praying to God to help me

run that race. Help me to finish strong.

Help me, my brothers, my sisters, my

family,

help my neighbor. help us to turn to you

and keep on following you and

journeying. And all of our other

prayers, we need to pray as well. We

need to pray that the most.

Let's pray.

Our Lord and God, we come before you and

we are thankful for the time that we

have to come to you in prayer. We thank

you for people like James and Elijah and

others throughout the Bible that show us

the importance of prayer, the power of

prayer, how to practice prayer. We ask

that you would give us patience and

coming to you in prayer. That we can

pray daily, that we can pray all the

time, that we cannot get discouraged

from when it seems that your answers to

our prayers are different from what we

would want. We thank you for your

goodness and for your son most of all

who came into this world for us and died

for us. We ask that you would help us

and change us and help us to be like

you. And it's through your son's name

that we pray. Jesus Christ. Amen.

For all of us here. Um Jesus Christ died

for us. Jesus Christ died for all of us

who aren't here as well. Jesus Christ

died for all of our neighbors, all the

people that we see, even the people we

see on the news. Even those people Jesus

Christ died for and wants to turn to

him. If you know in your life that there

are things that I need to change, I need

to turn around, I need to do different,

we offer an invitation. If you know that

there's changes you need to make, if you

need to become a Christian, you can do

that as we stand and as we sing.