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. James 5:16
If we are not careful, it is easy for us to operate under the false idea that prayer is only about us and our needs. When our prayers focus only on ourselves and what we need, we can forget about others. As a result, our prayers can become very self-focused. Our prayers can be all about us rather than about other people, too. Although this is an easy mindset to operate under, Scripture teaches that this mindset is simply not true. We were meant to pray for each other, not just ourselves.
We learn in James 5 about the power of prayer. In this chapter, James calls believers to pray in all circumstances: times of joy, sadness, hardships, and sickness. Then, He calls followers of Christ to pray for each other. James writes, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” This is a call for each of us to take our eyes off ourselves and think about others. Not only this, but Scripture teaches that praying for each other leads to healing. This does not only mean physical healing. It can also mean spiritual healing. God moves when we pray for each other.
This command to pray for each other from James 5 comes with a promise: our prayers are not in vain. Look at the very end of James 5:16: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” Our prayers have an impact. God hears our prayers and responds to them according to His will. There is also a second impact of our prayers: they change us as we pray. They align our will with God’s, and when we pray for others, they help us become less self-focused and cause us to think about others.
As we pray, we must not forget to look beyond ourselves and pray for others. In our prayers, we must pray for each other. As we pray for each other, God will move. He will bring healing. Who can you be praying for today?
It is time that we shift the focus of our prayer lives from only our needs to the needs of other people around us as well. Think of three people right now who you can pray for. Pray for them right now. Reach out to them today and ask them how you can be praying for them and commit to praying for those three people for the rest of the week. Let’s be people who pray not only for ourselves but for others also.
Read James 5:13-18(NLT)
Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. 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. 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.
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. 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! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
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