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.

Now the first key to passing the affliction test, is the individual key this is the key that is yours and yours alone. It is the key that you have to use by exercising the responsibilities that James reveals here.

1. Seasons of Prayer – Vs 13

Your first individual responsibility is to pray. A mother invited a group of her lady friends over to the house for lunch one day. She just about worked herself to death doing everything up right. When all the other ladies got there, they sat down to tea and cakes and sandwiches and all the stuff the mother worked so hard on. When they sat down, the mother looked at her 6-year old daughter and asked her to say the blessing. The little girl got all shy and embarrassed. She said, “Mommy, I don’t know what to say.” Her mom looked at her with that comforting, reassuring mom look and said, “Honey, just say what you hear Mommy say to the Lord.” The little girl bowed her head. With all the seriousness and sincerity she could come up with, she said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people over today?” Our personal prayers take all kinds of shapes, don’t they? They can be formal or casual, long or short. Often, they are fueled by and filled with all the things we want God to do for us. Especially when we’re dealing with some sort of affliction. Suffering can cause us to focus on self and our prayers become about us. James tells us to pray in the form of a couple of commands. This is not a suggestion we can take or leave, it’s a matter of obedience or disobedience. The first command in verse 13 is, “If any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. It’s here that we see our first season of prayer:

1. In Times of Trouble

These are times of tribulation and testing, it could be something physical or spiritual that is causing us distress? But what James is referring to here is the inner experience of having to endure misfortune rather than a specific problem. Our circumstances may create problems for us, but the real pain and turmoil is the inner struggle we face as we deal with things. Our reaction to the problem rather than the reason for the problem. I know from personal experience that when we are going through the pain Its easy to complain. Or to strike out or participate in self-pity and submit to our situation. James reminds us that all of these responses are wrong because they don’t involve prayer. Prayer reveals that our trust is in God, are you focusing on who you trust or what is causing the trouble? Prayer is not just talking to God its trusting God. Its asking God to help us with the trouble and then trusting that He will. While He may not always remove the problem, He will transform us if we respond rightly to the trial. 

God’s goal is to grow us not to baby us. And I am thankful that God cares enough not to coddle us but to cultivate our character so that we look more and more like Christ. 

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.