Biblical Teaching on Prayer
James 5:15-16
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 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.
Pondering Point
When this verse gets quoted, focus often goes to the latter part on powerful and effective prayer. But note the first part: “confess your sins to each other.” This was a practice Martin Luther embraced, once writing “when I urge you to go to confession, I am doing nothing else than urging you to be a Christian.” (Large Catechism 32.27). In fact, Luther wrote that he questioned the faith of anyone unwilling to confess his or her sins to another. By the way, he also had an issue with professional clergy being the sole focus of hearing sins confessed. Luther saw confession AND absolution (forgiveness) as falling in the realm of all followers of Jesus, referenced as the “priesthood of all believers.”
As you mull over James 5:15-16, take God’s word seriously and consider to whom you can confess your sins and receive absolution. Tomorrow, we look at being in a position of forgiver or absolver in Jesus’ name.
Prayer
Father God, teach me the value of confession and absolution. Strengthen my resolve to be obedient to You and practice confession of sins to another person. Finally, lead me to those who will share Your forgiveness with me in the name of Jesus, our Lord. In His name I pray. Amen.
Prayer Thoughts
Chapter 12
Confession
Credit goes to my brother in Christ, Reverend Rich Carter, for taking me aside and teaching me how to lift the burdens of sins from my life. He lived about six hundred miles south of Jos at the Lutheran headquarters in Obot Idim. He and his wife Miriam came to visit their two children, Nathan and Jeanette, at Hillcrest School. On these occasions Rich and I made an effort to take a long walk together. During these hours we confessed our shortcomings or sins and went through a confessional service. Just as the local Nigerians could lighten their burdens, Rich taught me how to leave my baggage of sin at the foot of the cross through prayer. Rich also assured me of forgiveness during our private confessional services.
It has taken me a number of years to fully understand repentance. It is opening me to the fact that I am a sinner. God’s law is so perfect and absolute that no one can achieve righteousness. Yet, God’s grace is so great that we do not have to accomplish it. Forgiveness is a gift from God to people like me who don’t deserve it. My God is holy, and therefore I stand condemned. This very awareness provides me with God’s forgiveness. I am forgiven totally because of the merits of Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for me on the cross. The payment is completely finished and done. His grace is the cure for my sins. Understanding what it means to confess my sins becomes the doorway for approaching my God in prayer.
Got his book? Read pages 69-72 in Keep Me and Keep All, Smith.
Also check out Pastor Bob’s answer to Prayer Question #3 on
p. 243: “What’s the purpose of prayer?”