Introduction: A Cure Greater Than Cancer or Climate Change

What if I told you I had the cure to cancer and the solution to climate change? That's a bold claim. Global spending on cancer care is nearly $300 billion each year, dwarfed by what we spend on responses to climate change—estimated at $2 trillion. We throw all of modern science at these problems, building entire economies around them.

But what if there was another angle on human health and global climate that's often overlooked? What if billions of people around the world had access to this alternative but often failed to make the most of it? Our passage this evening shows us the power of prayer.

If you're here exploring Christian faith, I wonder what you think of prayer. Have you tried it? Does it actually do anything? Christians ask that question too. The encouragement from our passage, particularly to everyone who knows and loves Jesus, is to keep praying together—at any time, but especially in sickness and sin, because of God's power and promises.

Keep Praying at Any Time

Look at verse 13:

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.

All kinds of trouble come along in life. This world is broken, and we feel it—pain and heartache, frustration and fear, sickness and struggles. What should we do when we face those troubles? We should pray. We talk to God about it, laying our hearts before him and seeking his help. This is the right way to use our tongues—something James has emphasized throughout this letter.

This brings us full circle to where the letter began. Back in chapter 1:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance... If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

So one thing we can pray for in the midst of trouble is wisdom. We pray for the trouble to go away and for better times, but we also pray for God's perspective on our trials, for help to see how he wants us to grow through the difficulties we're facing.

When we face trouble, we might be tempted to panic, hide away, or switch into a frenzy of manic activity. Instead, we should pray—bringing that trouble to our Father God, the one who gives us every good gift, the giver of life and breath, who always has more grace for us, even when our troubles are self-inflicted.

And when we're happy and cheerful, we can and should sing songs of praise to him, because he is worthy of all our praise. We have a songbook in the Bible—the Psalms—where the songs are literally from God himself, with something for every occasion.

Say you wake up tomorrow facing a rough day—what do you do? You pray. Weary and burdened? We pray. Missing a loved one? We pray. Feeling empty inside? We pray. We pray to God, and we praise him for his goodness—sometimes doing one, sometimes both at the same time. That's life.

Keep Praying in Sickness and Sin

Look at verse 14:

Is anyone among you ill? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise them up. If they've sinned, they'll be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

We need to think carefully about how prayer, sickness, and sin fit together, because there are some very wrong ways of putting these three things together.

Two Wrong Ideas to Avoid

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