Healing Prayer

Delivered September 30, 2012

James 5:13-20

Does prayer work? More specifically, does prayer for the sick work? Is it effective in bringing about healing? My answer as a Christian pastor is “Yes.” But I also admit that I can’t prove it. The scientific studies that have been conducted on the effectiveness of prayer are inconclusive. I am one of those people who trusts science as a way to cut through a lot of the baloney in the claims of faith healers and alternative medicine. A lot of the claims I would say at best are anecdotal evidence and at worst magical thinking, religious superstition or pseudoscience. I want my religious faith to be open to available evidence and be consistent with medical science. 

Therefore I am always on the lookout for scientific studies on the efficacy of prayer. There have been quite a few of them in recent decades. Some experiments show that prayer helps; those are the ones most often quoted by religious people in articles on prayer. Other experiments conclude that prayer has no effect; it makes no difference one way or the other. There are even studies – believe it or not - that seem to indicate that prayer is actually harmful to the sick. These are the ones quoted by religious skeptics. These results are explained by saying that those who are being prayed for feel pressure to get better and when they see no improvement they get depressed. They feel like they are letting people down and they actually get sicker. In any case, the consensus at the present time is that science has not proven the case one way or the other.

But as I said a moment ago I believe that prayer works because of personal life experiences - even though I can’t prove it. I have also become convinced that it is very difficult to study prayer scientifically. Good scientific experiments have to be double blind studies. That means that when studying the effects of prayer, no one can know who is being prayed for and who is not. The patients can’t know if they are part of the group that is being prayed for or if they are in the control group that is not being prayed for. Isn’t knowing that people are praying for you part of the power of prayer? Even the idea that you can have a control group of sick people who are definitely not being prayed for is untenable. Who is to say that the family members and friends of that person in the control group are not praying for them or that the person themselves are not praying for themselves? 75 percent of Americans say they pray every day. Can you tell me none of those millions are praying for these sick people in the control group?

Furthermore, what is considered prayer in a scientific study? One study done in the nineteenth century by Francis Galton assumed that since state churches in England and other countries regularly prayed for long life and health for their king or queen, then kings and queens must be the healthiest and most long-lived people in their countries. But the statistics showed that royalty did not live on average any longer than others of the upper classes. Does that disprove prayer? Or does that simply mean that reciting a required prayer in church is not really prayer?

C.S. Lewis took a great personal interest in healing prayer while his wife was dying of cancer. He said on this subject, "The trouble is that I do not see how any real prayer could go on under such conditions. Simply to say prayers is not to pray; otherwise a team of properly trained parrots would serve as well as men for our experiment." He argued that this approach to prayer treats it "as if it were magic, or a machine—something that functions automatically." The Bible says that not all prayers are equally effective. It depends on what is being prayed for and the motives of prayer. James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” It is also dependent on person doing the praying. James says in our passage that it is the fervent prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. How do you scientifically define fervent and righteous?

Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence, director of pastoral care at New York Presbyterian Hospital, said in 2005 regarding the scientific study of prayer, "Prayer can be and is helpful. But to think that you can research it is inconceivable to me. Prayer is presumably a way of addressing God, and there's no way to scientifically test God. God is not subject to scientific research." As much as I would love it to be proven scientifically that prayer results in a higher percentage of people healed, I can’t conceive how one would design an experiment to prove this. Science has been able to demonstrate beneficial physical changes in the bodies of the one praying or meditating – such as the reduction of stress that has health benefits. Statistics also show that religious people are healthier and live longer on average than the nonreligious (this is especially true of groups that have dietary restrictions and a healthy lifestyle like Seventh day Adventists and Mormons), but that is as far as science can go. But the testimony of scripture and of generations of praying people is that prayer works. That is what the apostle James says. In our passage James speaks about eight types of healing prayer.

1. First he talks about the prayer of petition. Verse 13 “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.” This is the type of prayer we have been talking about. A sick person ought to pray, and the word used for prayer here means request – asking for something. Here it is clearly asking for healing. I don’t know about you, but this comes naturally to me!  What else would I do when sick or when someone I love is sick? God is the great Physician. It is clear from the gospels that one of the major ministries that Jesus had was healing.

2. But James quickly moves beyond the prayer of petition to another form of prayer in this same verse: praying the psalms.  James says, “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” James might be talking about different circumstances. When we are sick, we pray prayers for healing; when we are well and cheerful, we sing psalms of praise. But even if you are sick and feeling miserable, you can still pray the psalms. If you read the OT book of Psalms you will find that there are a lot of psalms that are anything but happy. A lot of the psalms are spoken by people who are in desperate situations physically and emotionally. That is why the psalms are so beloved by Christians. Often the NT and psalms are bound together. They are arguably the most favorite part of the OT for Christians.

I love the psalms for this very reason. They are messy – just like real life. They don’t always have happy endings – just like real life. They are not neat and predictable. We can read psalms that praise and glorify God in the good times, and we can read psalms that cry out in struggle in the bad times. Jesus prayed the psalms when he was in agony dying on the cross. When he cried out “My God, my God Why hast thou forsaken me?” he was praying the opening line of Psalm 22. It continues with these words: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? ² O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.” That is the way he was feeling. The psalm continues with a description of one being crucified, which has lead people to think this was a prophecy of Jesus’ death. Also later it has words of faith. The psalmist says, “You have answered Me.²² I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.” Whether we are cheerful or in distress, we can always pray the psalms.

3. The third type of prayer mentioned by James is intercession. Verse 14 “Is anyone among you sick? 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.” This describes the community praying for a sick person. It also includes personal visits and private prayer from the leaders of the church. This is what I do and this is what we do as a church. I don’t do the anointing with oil part. But I don’t think that the oil is the important element here. We are not talking about magical oil here. I remember years ago Oral Roberts used to send you healing oil … if you send him a large enough contribution. I don’t buy into that type of thing. It is the prayer that heals, not the oil. That is clear in the next verse, “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”

4. This leads to the next type of prayer – Prayer of faith. Faith is an essential element of healing prayer. Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” There is a scene in the gospels were a woman who had been ill for twelve years was healed by faith. “And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.” Faith obviously has an important role to play in healing prayer.

James himself says in the first chapter of this letter, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”  He is talking about praying for wisdom in this ontext, but I think it is true of praying for anything. But we have to be very careful here in connecting healing and faith. Jesus healed people who did not have faith. And just because you have faith doesn’t mean you will be healed. The apostle Paul is a good example of that. He asked three times to be healed of his mysterious ailment he calls his “thorn in the flesh.” He says, “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Faith and healing are connected, but just because you have one doesn’t mean you will have the other. Many people with great faith are not healed, and people with no faith are healed. We certainly do not want to lay a guilt trip on sick people, insinuating that if they only had faith they would be healed. That is not true. I come from a family of practitioners of Christian Science. In fact I have an old photo of a Christian Science gathering of about twenty people who met in the barn of my great-grandparents in Tamworth and it is almost all my family. I know firsthand that Christian Science can lay a real guilt trip on people – implying that if you are not healed then somehow it is your fault – that you don’t have enough faith. That is not good. The last thing sick people need is to feel guilty about being sick. But still we are instructed to pray in faith.

5. Fifth James mentions the prayer of confession. Verse 15-16 “And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” Here James connects physical and spiritual healing. Sometimes a person is healed both physically and spiritually, like James refers to here. Sometimes a person is not healed physically but they are healed spiritually. Sometimes an illness wakes a person up to their spiritual condition. They find spiritual wholeness in God which was better than any physical healing. Sometimes a person is healed physically and not spiritually. I have seen a people pray for healing and get better, but immediately forget God. There then was no gratitude to God. They continue to live their life without God. That is physical healing without spiritual healing.

6. Sixth is the prayer of the righteous. The most famous verse in this passage is the last part of verse 16 which says, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Another translation: “The fervent prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” I could preach a whole sermon just on this verse … and I have! This verse tells us the type of prayer that is effective. It is fervent prayer. There are a lot of half-hearted prayers. We should not expect any response to insincere prayers. James says that the prayers of a righteous person are effective. My mother-in-law was the most effective prayer I have ever known. It was a loss when she died last year, and part of that loss is that we no longer have her to pray for us. I can see why Roman Catholics have developed the idea of praying to Mary and saints, asking them to intercede for you. I don’t believe in saints or Mary, but I can see why people would like to believe that they can intercede for us. I wish we still had Jude’s mother to pray for us. But we don’t. That means that we need to be the righteous ones who pray fervently and effectively for others.

7. Seventh is the prayer of Elijah. If there is anyone in the Bible who knew how to pray effectively, it was Elijah. James uses him as an illustration here. “17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.” I couldn’t get it to stop raining for one day for our son’s wedding a few year ago, but Elijah got it to stop raining for three and half years. Why he would want a drought like that is a whole OT story with its own problems, which thankfully I do not have the time to get into. But the point James is making is that some people know how to pray effectively. And it says here that Elijah’s praying style is that he prayed earnestly and repeatedly. Prayer is not just something you do in times of crisis. That is foxhole prayer. It is fine to pray when the bombs are dropping around you, but that should not be the only time we pray. I can’t tell you how many people I have known people who have come to a time of crisis in their lives and they have no idea how to pray to God for help because they have ignored God all their lives. Elijah knew God and served God and walked with God. So when it came time to pray, he knew how to pray earnestly and effectively.

8. Lastly, James talks about the prayer of restoration. He says in verses 19-20 “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” James ends the topic of healing prayer talking about spiritual restoration, because this is most important. Physical healing is important, but the truth is that we some day we are not going to be healed. At some point we will all get sick with an illness that will not be healed regardless of how many earnest fervent righteous persons we have praying for us. Our bodies are going to give out some day and we are going to die. Better later than sooner, but eventually it is going to happen. What is important is that we are spiritually ready for it whenever that happens. That is why James talks about truth and sin and saving a soul from death and covering a multitude of sins.

Healing of the body is important, but the healing of the soul is more important. There is physical illness but there is also soul sickness. The sickness of the soul is called sin. The solution to sin is Christ. The gospel says that sin and death has been dealt with my the death of Christ on the Cross - that his death covered a multitude of sins. In him we have eternal life even when our mortal bodies succumb to physical death. The cure of soul sickness comes through prayer. Praying to God for cleansing from sin through Christ and for eternal life that we have through faith in Christ. That is the perfect healing. That is the ultimate healing prayer.