“Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored. The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].” [James 5:16. AMP]
I’ve been pondering on this for some time now. I’ve heard it for years but didn’t get into the meat of the verse until recently. Which means that I have a number of questions and observations.
*Is the stumbling block ‘confess your sins to one another’. It can be because it involves being transparent – never an easy thing to do. It also requires us to have trust in those we ‘confess’ to. Now look at the definition, in this case, of ‘sin’ – false steps, offenses. I think we all will (eventually?) own up to our mistakes. Though I suspect we prefer the milder word ‘mistakes’ to the word sin. Still…… The result of doing this though is praying for one another for healing and restoration. And those 2 conditions are worth our (momentary) embarrassment
*However, it’s this phrase: ‘The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much.’ Let’s start with the qualification – righteous man. Do you know what that means? Does it describe you? Do you have scripture you can stand on that proves this?
Righteous: in right standing. How are you in right standing? Simple answer is that you aren’t and can’t of your own accord. It is accomplished through Jesus. Never forget that we are told our righteousness is as dirty rags (Isaiah 64:6). Well that ended that… until you look at: 2 Corinthians 5:21
“He made Christ who knew no sin to [judicially] be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God [that is, we would be made acceptable to Him and placed in a right relationship with Him by His gracious lovingkindness].”
Memorize that verse so you can sling it at the devil the next time he tries to tell you that you are nothing in God’s sight. The devil is always trying to tell us that we are not worthy. Of course we aren’t… from our own efforts. But in Jesus – we ARE. When we accepted Jesus as our Lord, one of the ‘gifts’ we received was His righteousness so we could be in relationship.
How we approach praying is as critical as What we are praying for/about. We really need to understand WHO we are as pray-ers. I believe that we always should come cleansed – which is possible when we act on 1 John 1:9 [confess, repent, become cleansed]. We err, we make mistakes, we sin so we are in need of restoration and that’s what’s provided us in 1 John. Along with come ‘rightly’ we need to come realizing our righteousness which gives us access is available (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Now we can give serious thought to ‘how’. We can come boldly (Hebrews 4:16) and expect. Besides, why bother coming if you don’t believe you will be heard? And we can follow the pattern from Philippians 4:6
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Just don’t forget the thanksgiving. As long as we are praying according to the Word, I believe the answer is always – “Yes, and Amen.” (2 Corinthians 1:20-21). When we pray, do we pray the Word? We really aren’t telling the Father what He’s already said, we’re telling ourselves and the devil. When we use the Word in this way, praying according to the Lord’s purposes and plans, we are in one accord with Him. Now That’s effective praying!
