Pray For Each Other?

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

James 5:16 

 

Why would James tell us to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other?  Permit me to offer an explanation from "The Gospel According To St. John (me being the St. John)":  I advise all of the new hires for the Sheriff's Department to get to know their coworkers (squads for the deputies).  Why? So you can help each other; so you can know when something is bothering your coworker; so your coworkers will know when something is amiss with you.  

 

I admit it...I'm not comfortable letting people get too close to me right away.  I tend to take this aspect of human relationships fairly slowly.  I do this on purpose: If someone gets to know me quickly then they may be stunned into insanity by what they learn.  The last thing I need is to have to explain why "Dave" is curled up in a corner babbling and drooling.  The other reason is one we can all understand...we've been burned by people whom we have trusted too soon.  

 

Now look at what James is telling us.  Does he REALLY expect me to confess my sins to someone else against whom I have no sin to truly confess?  NO!  What James is saying is that we need to be open and bare with each other.  Let's face it, when we have nothing to hide from each other, we have nothing to fear from each other.  When we have nothing to fear from each other, we are FREE to join together and make a positive difference in this world.

 

Let me ask you something...when was the last time you prayed for someone else?  Was it the generic "Father, be with 'Dave' and bless him in all he does"?  Or did you pray specifically, "Abba, thank you for bring 'Dave' into my life.  You know he is struggling financially with the birth of his daughter and his wife is not strong enough yet to return to work.  Please allow me to be Your servant to them and to show Your love and care to them.  Thank You for their daughter, 'Eileen', and for his bride, 'Barbara', for the joy and happiness they bring each other because of You..."  You see, when we are open with each other, praying specifically for each other is a privilege and an honor.  Not only that, we will ALWAYS have things to talk with God about because there are nothing hidden from each other.

 

Here's my challenge for each of us: Get to know each other so we can pray for each other, care for and about each other, and so we can be of service to each other.  One of my nuggets of advice is this: "If I don't know what's wrong, I can't help you". And guess what?  That means I also won't know how to pray for you!  The only way I can know what's going on with you is if you tell me OR if we are so close to each other with nothing to hide that we can tell when we need to pray for each other, and reach out to each other.

 

Think about that please.