At church, my pastor completed his series on James, with chapter 5 being entirely on prayer, which will be our next series on Sundays. When I read this chapter on James, I connected it to a verse in Ecclesiastes 7, which was another book I’d just completed with my Sunday morning group. I’ll go ahead and put both focus passages/verses here for you!

is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 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. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:13-19

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

Ecclesiastes 7:14

James advises us to pray and praise Him in everything. There’s no earthly occasion where communication with God isn’t necessary. Remember in Matthew? He says, “When you pray,” not, “If you pray.” When you pray… pray like this.

My church is big on the Lord’s prayer – we pray it every Sunday morning. If you don’t know what to pray, there’s scripture to pray through or simply praying the Lord’s prayer that’s a model for every prayer life, given straight to us from Jesus Himself.

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be Your name,

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

Matthew 6:9-13

No matter what we’re going through, our good days and bad days both belong to the Lord. We can give Him glory in both, thanking Him for all He’s done, even when we’re at our lowest.

What stuck out in James is that he compares us to Elijah. When we read about Elijah in the Word, we might just be in awe of this amazing human who had power! But the truth is, as James points out, there was actually nothing special about Elijah. He wasn’t made different. He was still human. He had a purpose that was documented for people thousand plus years later to still be reading about, but he was actually just like us, depending on God and praying through everything.

Doesn’t that just amaze you? We can be just like him, going to the Lord in prayer about everything under the sun – the good and the bad.

Will you turn to God today, whether its a good or bad day for you, and give it to Him in prayer to do with it what He wills?