James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 5:13-15

¹³ Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. 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.

As we continue in our series “The Litmus Test for Life” we come to the 12th test, “The Affliction Test.” It is here that James reminds us of both the seasons and the reasons for prayer. He tells us that there will be seasons of suffering as well as seasons of sunshine. But regardless of what season we are going through our response should be one of prayer. Because our response is not based on the season its based on the Savior. My prayer as we go through the Affliction test is that we will chose to petition God through prayer instead of protesting and throwing a pity party. In the movies Indiana Jones is known for his ability to decode clues and solve complex mysteries. But in real life, the mysteries aren’t always that easy to decode, are they? In the movies, they can figure out any mystery in under 2 hours. But real life isn’t like that, in fact in real life there are some mysteries that we may never solve. Mysteries like: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the wicked prosper? Why is that fine Christian saint dying of cancer? Why am I depressed, or lonely, or sick? Affliction is one of those mysteries that’s difficult to decipher. The only thing that’s not hard to figure out about it is that it is going to come. Sooner or later, we will walk down its path of pain. How do I know? Because the Bible says tells me so. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that the sun rises on both the evil and the good, and God sends rain on both the just and the unjust alike. Bad things do happen to good people, just look around you. That’s what this whole book of James has been about. It’s been about the fact that trials and testing will inevitably come. Contrary to the prosperity preachers of our day, James certainly isn’t preaching a health, wealth and prosperity gospel here. He understood that health, wealth and prosperity are not the goal of the gospel. The goal of the gospel is the opposite, its learning to be satisfied with Jesus. That it’s not about our circumstances it’s about Christ. While we don’t like difficult times it’s in the junk that we discover that Jesus is enough. The goal of the gospel is to experience joy in Jesus no matter what trials and tribulations we’re going through. That’s why we are given these 12 tests of our faith, because the affliction test reveals whether our trust in in the Savior not our situation. I want each of us to be able to pass the affliction test when it comes. Notice I said when it comes, not if it comes. I don’t want us to just barely squeak by, I want us to pass the affliction test with flying colors, which means passing it with joy. Because we are not called to survive suffering but to shine for Jesus in the midst of the junk. The only way to do that is to use the keys James gives us here in our passage. He gives us two keys, an individual key and a corporate key. These keys work together to decode the mystery of the affliction test so that we can pass it with joy.