Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing Psalms. James 5:13
It is amazing how much common sense is in the Bible. Take today’s text, for example, and its admonition for all who are afflicted to pray about it. Of course we pray about it when trouble comes, we say. But is praying the first thing that we do about it? We live in a society that is filled with ways to help ourselves and to access the help of others. So sometimes prayer gets bumped down the list, and becomes an afterthought instead of being our first response to the trouble. James is reminding us that the first place to take our burden is to the Lord in prayer.
Our first prayer is for God to consider our problem. Yes, He knows all about it, but His Father’s heart desires that His children acknowledge Him in these things. ‘Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death’ (Psalm 9:13). A prayer for God’s presence to be felt in the trial is also more than appropriate. ‘Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline Thine ear unto me; in the day when I call answer me speedily’ (Psalm 102:2).
Most of all, we desire to be delivered from our problem, and that good to pray for, according to Psalm 25:17: ‘The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring Thou me out of my distresses’. Of course, it is not always God’s will to deliver us from our distresses but to be led by Him through the trial. And so God would rather have us plead for the strength to pass through the trial than whine for deliverance from the trial.
Many times, our troubles are the result of our own mistakes or sins. In these cases, the Word of God has precedence for us to seek the Lord’s forgiveness. ‘Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions’ (Psalm 51:1). We also have instruction from the Word of God to ask for His direction and guidance in the trial: ‘Teach me to do Thy will; for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness’ (Psalm 143:10). If we are in error, and it is because of our error that we are afflicted, then we need to pray about that too, as Job did: ‘Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred’ (Job 6:24).
Everybody has trials and difficulties. Some are small and others are overwhelming. But none of them are beyond the power of God to see us through them. Nothing is more important in the trial than in knowing the presence of the Lord in it all. That’s why we are to pray. -Jim MacIntosh