13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
14 Is any sick among you? 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:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which convert the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
I am sure all of us have had what I call "flashlight" conversations. Flashlight conversations are where we are flash lighting others areas of weakness in conversation as though we are superior with absolutely no faults or sins forgetting that we too need God's Mercy and Grace in our lives. I get it. We have TMZ, and all other gossip sources out there to entice us to see who did what today, but is that edifying? In the scriptures above, in a nutshell it talks about how we should pray for one another. If someone wronged us, we should go to them peaceably so that we will not carry that weight of bitterness or a grudge no longer than we ought to carry it because there is freedom in forgiving and confessing. Perfect Example as always, Jesus asking His disciples to pray and they all were sleep. Did He go tell everyone that they were sleep and embarrass them? No, He continued to pray. Even now Jesus is sitting at The Right Hand of His Father praying for us. And what do we do? We tell anyone and everyone when someone has sinned. Example:
Conversation-Deacon Joe robbed a bank; he ought to be ashamed of himself , but you do not pay your tithes. Sally had premarital sex last night. She knows better, but you envisioned sexual thoughts the same night.
It is not our place as Christians to spread the wrong deeds or weaknesses of other believers. Instead, we are called to lift one another up. How about we pray for Joe and Sally? How about we go see about them and try to encourage them or just show love towards them? We are on the same team, correct? If the a player from The Bulls points out his teammates weaknesses to the opposing team it will ruin their chances of winning and break the solitude of the team. Same point with Christians. We are a team! Satan already has the job of accusing and putting down EVERYBODY. So, why would we punch his clock working for him talking about sister so and so sins or brother so and so faults? Start a specific prayer line for people with strong addictions or struggles, a prayer group, or just simply pray for people in your spare time. Whatever God leads you to do, but do not put down others especially your brothers and sisters in Christ when they are weak or struggling. There were many people Jesus healed when other "religious" people turned them away and talked about them. Let's operate in love. We need each other. Lastly even in our faults God's mercy sustains! Those last few verses speaks on how Elias in The Old Testament was a man who too had faults, but what did he do? He prayed and again the prayers of the righteous can change some things around and that is exactly what his prayer did. He did not allow his shortcomings to keep him from going to The Throne of God and neither should we. His prayer caused it to rain in a dry spell and it continues to say that even in your screw ups, if you can gain a soul to Christ you have covered a multitude of sins! That is Mercy at it again. All of this is preparation for what is already going on in Heaven. The Holy Trinity is The Model of Team work even though they are ONE. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost work together and as His people we should make an effort to follow the same example.
14 Is any sick among you? 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:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which convert the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
I am sure all of us have had what I call "flashlight" conversations. Flashlight conversations are where we are flash lighting others areas of weakness in conversation as though we are superior with absolutely no faults or sins forgetting that we too need God's Mercy and Grace in our lives. I get it. We have TMZ, and all other gossip sources out there to entice us to see who did what today, but is that edifying? In the scriptures above, in a nutshell it talks about how we should pray for one another. If someone wronged us, we should go to them peaceably so that we will not carry that weight of bitterness or a grudge no longer than we ought to carry it because there is freedom in forgiving and confessing. Perfect Example as always, Jesus asking His disciples to pray and they all were sleep. Did He go tell everyone that they were sleep and embarrass them? No, He continued to pray. Even now Jesus is sitting at The Right Hand of His Father praying for us. And what do we do? We tell anyone and everyone when someone has sinned. Example:
Conversation-Deacon Joe robbed a bank; he ought to be ashamed of himself , but you do not pay your tithes. Sally had premarital sex last night. She knows better, but you envisioned sexual thoughts the same night.
It is not our place as Christians to spread the wrong deeds or weaknesses of other believers. Instead, we are called to lift one another up. How about we pray for Joe and Sally? How about we go see about them and try to encourage them or just show love towards them? We are on the same team, correct? If the a player from The Bulls points out his teammates weaknesses to the opposing team it will ruin their chances of winning and break the solitude of the team. Same point with Christians. We are a team! Satan already has the job of accusing and putting down EVERYBODY. So, why would we punch his clock working for him talking about sister so and so sins or brother so and so faults? Start a specific prayer line for people with strong addictions or struggles, a prayer group, or just simply pray for people in your spare time. Whatever God leads you to do, but do not put down others especially your brothers and sisters in Christ when they are weak or struggling. There were many people Jesus healed when other "religious" people turned them away and talked about them. Let's operate in love. We need each other. Lastly even in our faults God's mercy sustains! Those last few verses speaks on how Elias in The Old Testament was a man who too had faults, but what did he do? He prayed and again the prayers of the righteous can change some things around and that is exactly what his prayer did. He did not allow his shortcomings to keep him from going to The Throne of God and neither should we. His prayer caused it to rain in a dry spell and it continues to say that even in your screw ups, if you can gain a soul to Christ you have covered a multitude of sins! That is Mercy at it again. All of this is preparation for what is already going on in Heaven. The Holy Trinity is The Model of Team work even though they are ONE. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost work together and as His people we should make an effort to follow the same example.
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