The Power of Prayer
Samuel Chadwick lived from 1860-1932 and was a well-known preacher and revivalist in England in the Methodist church. He once said this about the power of prayer…
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.” – Samuel Chadwick
Some of the most meaningful moments of my life happened when praying with and for other people.
I think about how our family prays together when we sit down to eat, and how I love hearing my wife and kids pray. I think about how we pray with and for each other when big decisions are coming our way.
I remember when our kids were little, how much fun it was to pray with them and how one of them, I won’t mention any names but her name begins with Em, and ends with ma :), would wait until story time was over and tuck in was all done and right as I was about to turn out the light and go to bed myself, at the very last second, would beg me to pray with her! I don’t think she was that spiritual as a 3-year-old, she just didn’t want to go to sleep yet. But I could never say no to that!
I think about the times I’ve been blessed to pray with people who are going through tough times. The moments we’ve circled up at church, or in someone’s living room, or in a hospital room, or somewhere else and we’ve just prayed together for each other.
I think about the times we’ve carried what felt like impossible requests to God because we knew… whatever was happening, only God could help. Only God could heal. Only God could provide what was needed.
I think about the times we’ve carried our griefs and sorrows to God, believing in faith that, as hard as it is to say goodbye, we have this eternal hope because of the resurrection. So we grieve with each other, but we never grieve like the world grieves because we have unparalleled hope.
And I think about the times we’ve circled up to pray a prayer of praise because we know, we’re so excited, and we know, this blessing… whether it’s a child on the way, a new job, a new opportunity, whatever it is… it is a gift from God who is the giver of every good and perfect gift.
We Pray for Each Other
This is what we do as the people of God. We pray. We pray with each other for each other.
This is what we do when we come to important moments, to a crossroads, when we face a crisis: We pray. This is one of the most important and meaningful ways we do life together. This is what people of faith do: We pray together.
What’s interesting is that this is true of many people who don’t have faith, who don’t believe in God. When the situation is so dark, so desperate, even they in that moment will pray, “God… if you’re there, we need you. In fact, if we ever needed you, we need you now.”
There’s something inside of all of us that knows, when you don’t know what else to do, when you don’t know where else to turn, pray.
We pray.
Old Camel Knees
That’s what the first followers of Jesus did. We see it over and over again in the life of the early church.
James is a short letter you’ll find near the end of your Bible that was written to Christians everywhere, and what he writes is pure gold.
James was one of the brothers of Jesus. Which, by the way, if you had any doubts that Jesus really is the Son of God… this is pretty convincing! If your brother told you he was the Messiah, would you believe him!? We’re not sure when James came to faith, but at some point, James believed his brother Jesus was and is God’s Messiah. And he didn’t just believe it, he lived it. James became one of the key leaders in the Jerusalem church.
Tradition says he had a nickname. Do you know what they called brother James? They called him “Old Camel Knees.” Yeah, I know, that’s a strange nickname. But do you know why they called him that? Because James spent so much time on his knees in prayer to God, he had developed calluses on his knees.
So when James writes about prayer, we should listen. Because James spent hours in prayer. James spent hours on his knees in prayer. James believed his brother Jesus is God’s Messiah, the Savior of the world.
13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.
The word “pray” is used over 350 times in Scripture. In the New Testament alone, there are over 100 references to prayer, and we are commanded, taught, and instructed to pray over 30 times.
James, talking to Christians everywhere, in every place, Old Camel Knees James, tells us what to do when the hard times come our way. We PRAY!
Are you suffering hardships? You should pray!
What do we do when we suffer? Pray.
When tragedy strikes? Pray.
When the unimaginable happens? Pray.
When we’re hurting? Pray.
This is what we do. We pray. We don’t complain. We don’t argue. We don’t fight. We don’t post on social media. We don’t do what the world does, and that’s because we have a different hope. That’s because we are people of faith.
We know that when we pray, Jesus understands. He understands suffering. He understands pain. He understands hardship. He understands what it’s like to be treated unfairly. He understands what it is to be beaten, spit on, mocked, laughed at, and nailed to a cross for crimes He did not commit. Whatever you’re going through, he understands human suffering. (Isaiah 53.3-4; Matthew 26:37–38; John 11:35; Philippians 2:6–8; 1 Peter 2:21–24; Hebrews 2.17-18, 4.15).
The Purpose of Prayer
So when we face hardships, and we will because we live in a broken and fallen world, a world broken by sin, we pray. We turn to God in prayer.
We don’t pray to get things from God. We pray to draw near to God.
If you back up to James 4.7-8, James says this…
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
We believe God can do anything. Nothing is impossible for God. But the point of prayer isn’t to get things from God, it’s to get into the presence of God. Because we believe that in His presence, we find everything we need.
If we’re suffering, we pray.
Then James says, if we’re happy, if we’re on the mountain top, sing praise!
One of my favorite old songs of praise says,
Count your many blessings, name then one by one.
Count your many blessings see what God has done.
One of my favorite newest songs of praise says,
I’ll praise in the valley, Praise on the mountain (yeah)
I’ll praise when I’m sure, And praise when I’m doubting (yes, sir)
As long as I’m breathing, I’ve got a reason to
Praise the Lord
When we’re suffering, we pray.
When we’re happy, we praise!
Are You Sick?
Then James says…
14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.
What do we do when we’re sick? What do we do then? We pray.
James was likely an elder in the church. In Acts 15, he’s the one who steps forward to make an important decision in a gathering of elders and leaders in Jerusalem. So when James says, When you’re sick, call on your elders to come and pray over you, I would imagine he’s speaking from personal experience.
He was a man of prayer. A leader in the church. And he knew the greatest honor for anyone who wears the name elder is to pray over people, with people, for people. It’s the reason we end every worship with a time of prayer where you can pray with our elders. These are people who have devoted themselves wholly to God and to the service of God’s church as shepherds, protectors, caregivers, prayer warriors for God’s people.
Anointing oil was used in the ancient world to heal the sick; it was applied to wounds and had certain healing properties. But it was also used in the Jewish and Christian faith as a way of setting something apart for God.
James says that this kind of prayer offered in faith has the power to heal the sick and forgive sin. You see those two things together often in the ministry of Jesus. He would heal the sick and forgive sin. For James, this is the power of Christ in us, that when we pray, our prayers can have those same effects in the lives of the people we’re praying with, praying over, praying for.
Confession and Healing
Then James says,
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
Confession isn’t something we’re necessarily good at. We would rather just confess our sins to God. We don’t want to confess our sins to one another. But James isn’t going to let us off the hook here. This is important.
James says: Confess and pray so that you may be healed. Healed from what? From the spiritual disease called sin. (Isaiah 53 – By His wounds we are healed.) In other words, if you want to experience healing, it begins with confessing your sin. And you can be sure that God will forgive you because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective! James says, If you want proof… remember Elijah!
Elijah was one of the most powerful prophets who ever lived. I don’t know about you, but I don’t put myself in the same category as Elijah. But James does! James reminds us that he was a normal person like you and me, but he prayed with bold faith, and God listened. In the same way, we can boldly approach the throne of God and believe in faith that God will hear us when we pray!
Perhaps our greatest problem is that we believe God for far too little. We forget the access we have to God in prayer, through prayer. We forget to have faith and pray to the One who loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son for us. And if He gave His Son for us, what would He withhold from us? (Romans 8.32).
The Sweat Lodge
What does it look like for a church like us to be this devoted to prayer and to praying for one another?
Years ago, I took a group of teenagers on a mission trip to work on a Navajo Indian Reservation. While we were there, the Navajo Indians invited us to their sweat lodge to pray.
I don’t know if you’ve ever done this before, but when you enter a sweat lodge, it’s literally a hole dug into the ground with a mud and thatch roof. Near the entrance, there’s a place where they place the grandfathers. That’s what they call the rocks, because the rocks were here before we were. They take those rocks and heat them up in a big bonfire for a few hours before you enter the sweat lodge.
About 15-20 of us would go in at once. There’s only room for like 10. So you’re literally squeezed into the smallest of spaces. You’re touching someone no matter where you’re sitting.
The Indian leading the sweat lodge instructed us that when we begin to pray, we cannot pray for ourselves; we can only pray for the other people in the room. So we begin by going around the room sharing our prayer requests. Your job in that moment is to listen and remember. It’s pitch black dark. They’ve closed the door to the sweat lodge. You can’t see your hand in front of your face.
Then we begin to pray. As we pray, water is poured over the lava rocks. Steam begins to rise. You begin to sweat. More water is poured over the rocks. You’re sweating even more. The heat is rising. Everyone begins to pray louder and louder. The hotter it gets, the more steam that comes, the louder everyone prays. By praying for others and not thinking of yourself, you can forget about the heat and really concentrate on others and on God. If you forget and start praying for yourself, start thinking only of yourself, you realize just how hot it is, and you won’t be able to withstand the sweat lodge.
TO God FOR Each Other
I think that’s true for us as well. Sometimes, we feel the heat rising around us. The pressure is high. The tension is real. The problems persist. And we’re going through it alone. We’re praying and we’re praying and we’re praying, but we’re only praying for ourselves. And because we’re only thinking of and praying for ourselves, we feel the heat. But when we ask others to pray for us… and when we stop praying for ourselves and we concentrate on praying for others… something happens. We can manage the heat because our focus has shifted. We can withstand the pressure because someone else is carrying our burden for us. And we are carrying the burdens of others for them.
This is what we do as people of faith. This is a part of how we do life together.
We pray TO God FOR each other.
Your prayers are powerful and effective. Our prayers are powerful and effective. God hears us when we pray. And He is working, often in invisible ways, but always for our good and for His ultimate glory. (Romans 8.28).
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.” – Samuel Chadwick
So where do we turn, what do we do when we’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death? We pray. We pray to God for each other.
We pray because only our God of grace has the power to help. We pray because He has already defeated sin and death.
We pray because He loves us and He has promised to hear us and He is mighty to save.
We pray because that’s what people of faith who love each other do. We usher each other into the presence of God.
We talk to God. We trust Him. Then, we wait for Him to work.
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