“The effective prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16).

For the past three months we have delved into the verse above to uncover as many jewels as possible. We first broke the sentence down to its foundation, simplifying it to “prayer avails.” When a prayer is humble or authoritative we have the promise that God hears us, making it so our prayer has done a lot of good—it is not in vain.

Next, we examined the words “righteous man” and found that the required righteousness is simply a quest to know God. Last month, we focused on the “effective prayer” and saw that when we go to the Lord in prayer, we are energized for the walk ahead.

To close this study we are going to look specifically at the context of the verse used by James. What do the surrounding verses tell us about this verse in particular?

Backing up to James 5:13 we read, “Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray.” The next verse similarly says, “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders…to pray.” James summarizes his first point in verse 15 where he writes, “…the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”

Three verses are taken to emphasize the fact that if we are suffering from some kind of physical ailment, the Lord can heal us if we take it to Him in prayer. We can debate about whether our sickness was sent by God, the Devil, or just a natural result of a sinful, fallen world—this is another topic for another day. The fact remains that God can and does heal illnesses when we petition to Him.

James then makes a sudden shift in the second part of verse 15: “…and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” He continues into the next verse: “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.” Then comes the part of the verse we have been studying: “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

Why the sudden shift in topic from sickness to sin?

You could make the case that he reverts back to his original subject when he instructs us to pray for each other so that we would be healed. I believe at the end he is still talking about sin and has set up the discussion by mentioning our need to pray for sickness. After all, what is sin but a spiritual sickness?

Everything written about our physical ailments needing prayer goes double for the spiritual ailments that torment us endlessly. We are to pray to God to provide the cure for our spiritual illness that has been brought on by sin.

At first we may experience the light sniffles of a proud thought. We don’t take care of the primary symptoms which lead to a deep cough, such as pride exhibiting itself outwardly as we put someone else down. Then, the sickness consumes our entire body and everyone sees the hypocrite we really are. We are bedridden and our witness completely destroyed.

But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Anywhere along the way of our downfall we can drop to our knees, confess our sins to God and find the cure that our spirit has been longing for. It is like feeling medicine passing through every vein and alleviating all pain in its path. Prayer goes deeper, to the root of the problem, instead of covering it up and trying to convince ourselves and everyone else that we are okay.

There is an additional part to the confessional, though. James told us to “confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another.” There is a communal nature to prayer; we are to pray for others and they are to pray for us. Prayer when we break it down is simply us communing with God, so it stands to reason that the whole community of believers should be brought into the process.

Our culture puts a strong emphasis on the individual. A simple glance at marketing shows this focus on the singular: Be all YOU can be, or have it YOUR way. This individualism has bled into the church so we often find it difficult to enter into the true communal prayer of praying for each other and holding each other accountable.

When we are tempted by sin or have given in to that temptation we are given a remedy for our sickness. Our Great Physician says, “Take two of these and don’t call me in the morning, but anytime you want.” The twofold tonic He prescribes is confessing our sins to accountability partners and to our Father in Heaven. What we will find is that our “effective prayer” will “avail much.”

Next month we will begin a study on the seven churches of Revelation where we see how each of those churches contains something found in each of our personal Christian walks, for better or for worse. Until then, I pray that God blesses you in ways that further His Kingdom.