Are Any Of You Sick? You Should Call For The Elders Of The Church To Come And Pray Over You

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Are Any Of You Sick?

You Should Call For The Elders Of The Church

To Come And Pray Over You

Scripture

James 5

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.

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.

Observation

A little over nine years ago a friend named Matt Cochran and a fairly large group of men from our church came into the ICU at St. Joseph Hospital Main they circled around my bed and anointed me with oil and prayed for me. I was in a coma so I only know about this because I was told later.

My surgeon, I found out later had already told his nurse practioner that he did not think that I would not survive after the 14 hour surgery. He had actually told Kathy though something a little more optimistic, he told Kathy that I had less than a 5% chance to survive the ride from the operating room up to intensive care.

But that very night after those men came in and prayed for me I finally began to show some improvement. Coincidence? Not on your life – Kathy and I know better and I hope you know better too!

My pastor, and very special friend Dr. Waylon B. Moore was not able to be with those men that came that night, but he came the next morning. Kathy shared with him that the men had prayed and anointed me with oil the night before, but Kathy said that he prayed for me and also anointed me with oil!

This past week I was asked by a patient if I would anoint him with oil and pray for him and I gladly did. As I prayed for him and anointed him all the memories of my month long hospital stay and all the stories, like the faith of those men and the faith of a lot of others came flooding back to my mind and made me smile. I am only here today because people (a whole lot of them) prayed for me.

I did ask this patient if he knew why we anoint with oil and pray for people and he really didn't know why so I shared this passage in James 5 with him.

Application

I believe in prayer! I know that it is the most important thing that I can do for someone is to pray for them. I know that it is the most important thing that I can do for you!

How about you? Who are you praying for?

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me to keep my focus on those around me and not on myself. When I pray for someone help me to always pray in faith. Don't let me pray to impress people. Give me compassion for the people that I meet and as I pray for them help me to feel what they are going through.

I pray right now for those who are sick. I pray for healing. Give them strength! Encourage them today.

Daily Bible Reading: James 1,2,3,4,5

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