One more week of James. Tune in to see what book I am led to study next.
Read James 5:13-20
Title in NIV: Healing Power of Prayer
There is always more than one way to assess a situation. A worldly view/attitude or a spiritual view/attitude. In these verses, The worldly attitudetude/view he makes me question God. The spiritual attitude/view makes a lot of sense to me.
Worldly view: When I assess these verses with a worldly view, I become confused and question God. My worldly view says, "I prayed and asked prayers from the church. The person I prayed for did not get well and died. The others I prayed for got divorced anyway. They were not healed with prayer like the verse says he would be. God is a lier." A worldly view and attitude of the scriptures gets us in trouble sometimes. The bible tells us to live spiritually more and more each day. A hymn says to "have less of me and more of Him", then says "have none of me and all of Him".
It is impossible to live totally with a spiritual mindset because we are in the world. We are like dolphins. They cannot totally live outside the water, but they cannot live totally in the water without coming up for air either. They need both. We need both also. We live in the world and cannot get away from it (until death), but we can see glimpses of the spiritual world all around if we take the time live FOR the spiritual. It is hard to be spiritual and think spiritual all the time. That is just the way it is since we have a worldly body, but that should be our goal: none of this world in me and all of the Spirit in me.
Spiritual view: I like the wording of verse 15 in the KJV. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick." The Greek definition (someone told me) is 1) to make well, heal or 2) preserve one who is in danger of perishing. There is a worldly definition and a spiritual definition. Looking at the spiritual definition, if we pray, we help save the sick (people without Jesus as their Savior) from perishing. The KJV catches the spiritual view more clearly to me than the NIV which catches the worldly view.
Daily, I encourage you to look for glimpses of the spirit realm in your life. A baby being born, a whisper from God, a call from a friend, family, kids playing well together, someone coming to Christ, a baptism. Whatever it is, it is a blessing being sent down from heaven to show us what is to come. I can't wait to see it, undivided.
Further study: John 15:19; 1 Cor 3:18-20; 2 Cor 10:3; 1John 2:15
You have a unique story that can heal and change lives. You have been steeped in it since before birth. I want to give you the tools using Biblical principles to understand, accept and share your story.
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1 comment:
I very often have to remind myself that my "healing Prayer" is answered not in the way I wanted, but the answer "is what I got," and I must deal with it.This is when I pray for the Lord to push and shove me into the acceptance mode, because I may want to resist (my worldly self having a "scrimmage" with my spiritual self.) Pray to be led. That is where I must follow. You are right, James is all about attitude and especially about working on attitude. Your Papa quoted James and Philippians a lot.
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