James 5:14,
“Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them
pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." “Is any sick?”
I think of spiritual sickness. We all need help at times, most of the time. I’m
glad we’re a praying people, and we can pray for one another. We can all have
the spirit of an elder, caring for one another and praying for others, for
those closest to us whom we might know a bit of their struggle, like our little
meeting. Doing so is like anointing them with oil, maybe like helping them have the
Lord’s Spirit and blessing. Verse 15, “the prayer of faith shall save the sick.” Our
prayers can and are being a help to others. Verse 16, “Confess your faults one to
another.” That’s kind of what we do in fellowship meetings sometimes. Confess your
faults, not your sins. We don’t express every time we’ve sinned, but
sometimes we do express our weaknesses, our tendencies to shortcomings, and
those we know in our little meeting and maybe know a bit of their struggle. We
can pray for them in secret and our prayers will be effectual. Verses 16-18 talks
about Elijah caring for those people. |