While waiting for yet another surgery to remove any cancer cells in the muscles and tissues around the tumor site, I went to a men’s prayer breakfast where two men pulled me aside to pray with me. Specifically, they prayed that my sins would be removed and my faith would be bolstered so that my cancer would be healed. A few weeks later, the surgeons flayed my leg from my knee to my ankle to obtain “clean margins.”

Though I was offended and confused by by the prayers of those two gentlemen, I knew they meant well; they are good men. However, they told me directly that if my faith had been strong enough then I would have grown close to God that I wouldn’t have gotten cancer. Over time, I became resentful of that statement. Still, I had to investigate the truth of the matter.

Is there any truth to the belief that Christians battle illness because of sin and lack of faith? That question is too big to deal with in its entirety. The question of faith-healings and faith-healers has incessantly stalked the Church for a century and a half. Any stance taken has been and will be largely subjective. Instead of looking at faith and healing, let’s see what the Bible says about sin and sickness.

We will begin with James 5, where the brother of Jesus asserts that when someone is healed of their illness, their sins are also forgiven (James 5:14-15 NIV).

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 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.

The relationship here, though not explained, is undeniable: the prayer of faith makes one well and raises them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

Moreover, the next verse could not be clearer (James 5:16 NIV):

Therefore 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.

It follows, are you sick? Call the elders, ask to be anointed with oil, pray in faith, confess your sins to one another, and then your sins will be forgiven (if you’ve sinned) and you will be healed.

Still, that is a far cry from saying that the sins of the person who is sick are to blame for their illness. There is a growing belief in people that I know who attend churches that put greater emphasize the practice of praying for the sick than they do anything else. It goes like this: many are sick because they have sinned, and because they are unrepentant we won’t pray for them, but instead we will turn them over to Satan. This is a dangerous, unloving, and calloused belief. It may be why James concluded his letter with a call to rescue the perishing.

The belief that illness is directly linked to the sins of the ill was also a common belief in the first century. But, is it a sound belief?

Let’s look at John 9:1-7 NIV:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Here we see that Jesus and His disciples encounter a man who had suffered a lifetime of blindness. His parents would have suffered as well, raising a boy who was blind. The disciples look at the man and – in their minds – condemn him for his sins. But then they think that perhaps they are being too harsh. Maybe he didn’t sin at all; maybe it is his parents who are to blame*.

Jesus tells them that neither supposition is correct. The man had been born blind so that God would be glorified in His healing. God knows why we suffer illness, but we cannot with certainty determine such things, so we must not pass judgement.

While we cannot and must not conclude that anyone is sick because of one’s own sin (only God can say for sure), we can be certain that the path to healing begins with the attitudes and faith that James outlines in the steps in his epistle. Corporate confession (genuine confession must include repentance), faith, personal and corporate prayer, and the symbolic anointing with oil. One may not be sick because of sin, but unrepented sin demonstrates a lack of faith in Christ, and one cannot be healed without faith in Jesus.

Isn’t it interesting that the Bible never tells us (not that I can recall) that Jesus asked believers to gather together, pray, and anoint the sick with oil while He walked in this earth, but after He ascended into heaven this practice became the norm. Why? Because it is just as important to God that we (His body, filled with the Holy Spirit) love and care for each other in the same way we love God. He emphasized this in naming the Greatest Commandments (Matthew 22:36-40).

This too is certain: sickness and death have been with us from almost the beginning of this age and will be with us until the end of this age. Sickness and death, though, are not part of God’s ideal journey for humankind; sickness and death came about only because the first-created of mankind (Adam and Eve) chose to be like gods instead of loving and cherishing the true God. Original sin.

*It is interesting to note that even the Pharisees, experts in the Law, believed that this man had been born blind because of sin. See John 9:34.

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Two questions arise when I read the last half of James 5. First, will God answer the prayers of Christians who harbor sin? Secondly, what is the relationship between sin and sickness?

Let’s look at the first question. James tells us that the prayers of the righteous avail much. This implies that the prayers of the unrighteous avail little. Let’s step out of James to see what other New Testament writers say about this.

John tells us that God answers prayer because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. 1 John 3:22.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:15 that God forgives us only if we forgive others.

It seems plain that God answers the prayers of the righteous. Those who sin, though, separate themselves from God.

Likely, your heart just sunk. Mine did. I may never be righteous enough that God will answer my prayers. My actions may never please God.

God knows that. From the creation of Adam to today, there has been only one person whose actions entirely pleased God. There has been only one who is righteous: Jesus Christ.

God knows that we were born with a sinful nature. That is why He replaced it with the nature of Christ when you were saved. If we have faith in Christ our sins are forgiven and we are washed clean by the blood of the lamb. To ask God to forgive our sins because of our faith in Christ and His sacrifice, and for God to count the righteousness of Jesus as our own righteousness… Well, that is the only way our prayers will ever be heard.

Why, then, do we feel condemned and unworthy when we try to pray? That, too, is human nature. Read what John says about sin and prayer in context (1 John 3:20-24 NIV):

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

God is greater than our deceitful hearts. He knows everything. Just believe in Jesus, and love one another and we will be counted as righteous.

If we have believed in Christ but continue living in sin, then we make God out to be a liar and our prayers are gibberish. We should confess our sins to God and our brothers and sisters in Christ before expecting them to be answered. Again, only if we confess and put our faith in Christ and love one another will we be considered righteous (because of His sacrifice on the cross). Hard words to hear, harder yet to obey, but they are the words of God.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 NIV

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In our last Blog, we spoke briefly of depressed Christians and how those in the ministry should treat them. My point was this: depression is an illness and should be treated like any other illness. In my studies of depression, I kept coming back to the 5th chapter of James.

James 5:15 is rarely the topic of Sunday morning services. It is a bold statement:

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.

When I read this verse I must wonder why, then, we do not see more people healed. Here are a few thoughts.

First, we cannot center our beliefs around any one verse. Months ago, I reminded my readers that the phrase “by his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5), which so many (including me) quote when praying for healing, is a single phrase in verse within a larger context that deals with our iniquities and transgressions. Taken in context, the word “healed” could be referring to healing from injurious sin as much as physical health.

So, here in James, let’s look at the context, James 5:13-18 (ESV):

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.

The first thing that I notice is that there are three types of prayer mentioned in this paragraph.

1. Personal Prayer: is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
2. Corporate Prayer: 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.
3. Intercessory Prayer, or Praying for each other: pray for one another, that you may be healed.

I have heard Christians state that they get as much (or more) spiritual growth from staying home and enjoying family activities or watching sports as they do from going to church. That is because few of our churches provide an environment conducive to spiritual growth. Few exhibit the love and power of God, and one reason for that is because they do not follow the prayer guidelines presented in James 5. Instead of heart-felt, faith-driven prayer, most churches have “pastoral prayer.” What is pastoral prayer? It is a well-rehearsed pattern of platitudes and florid speech designed to teach or lead the body of Christ to the altar of God. In most cases, it doesn’t teach at all. What it really accomplishes is to extinguish conviction in the hearts of those who need to fall on their face and repent. Pastoral prayer also keeps our services orderly so that we can get to the dinner buffet before the Baptists. A church seeking spiritual growth and healing would do well to follow the guidelines in these verses and rediscover true prayer. An individual seeking to join a church that is a true spiritual body of believers, would search for a church like that understands prayer as outlined in James.

The second thing I notice is that James implicitly tells us that not everyone’s prayer will be answered. Those whose prayers are answered are those who pray fervently from a position of absolute surrender (which may be gained through suffering), bathe themselves with the prayers of faith-filled mature Christians, demonstrate a measure of their own faith, and confess their sins to their brothers and sisters in Christ.

• 1st, Is anyone suffering? Let him pray. The first condition we see is that one must be suffering. If we dig a little deeper, we see that the word suffering means “suffering from evil.” James wrote this epistle to the twelve tribes that had been scattered around the world. Most of the Jews around the world suffered persecution, and it is with persecution in mind that he wrote this letter. Persecution leads to absolute surrender to the power and love of God. It is when we are surrendered – at our weakest – that He exhibits His strength and rescues us.
• 2nd, Call for the elders of the church who will pray over the sick and anoint with oil. Surround the sick and suffering with men and women of faith, mature Christians who have learned to trust in Jesus at all cost. Anointing with oil is symbolic of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, who works with the authority of the Father. Hebrews 1:9 expresses the understanding of the 1st Century Church as it pertained to the anointing oil, there was a relationship between the anointed and the degree in which they loved the righteousness of God (Hebrews 1:9 ESV):

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

• 3rd, the prayers must be made in faith. We must believe that God is able and willing to rescue us and to heal us physically, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and financially. Remember, God wants the best for His children, just as we want the best for our children.
• 4th, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. This requirement is the reason that most churches do not exhibit spiritual growth and power. People will not confess to one another. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where Jesus or an apostle asked the multitude to raise their hand it they had an unspoken request. Sure the Bible says that God knows what you need before you ask, and the Bible says that the Spirit prays when you don’t know how, but that is a far cry for saying you don’t have to ask, or you don’t have to share.

Prayer must be fervent and the pray-er, righteous. The KJV used the word fervent, which is perfect here. The NIV misses the implication all together, and even the ESV, misses the point. The image I chose for this blog is that of a long-abandoned hospital because it implies that all hope is gone. It is that attitude – one of hopelessness – that God wants us to take. It is human nature, that only when we have lost faith in ourselves that we will trust in God and others who are devoted to God. That is what the KJV means by fervent.

Who is righteous enough to have their prayers answered? I trust only in Christ. It is only His righteousness that God honors.

There is a definite correlation between sin and answered prayer. We will look at that next.

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Once, when his wife noticed Luther in the midst of a bout of depression, she put on her finest mourning garb. Dressed in black, face veiled, she presented herself to him.

“Who died?” Luther asked.

She lifted her veil and replied, “It seems as if God must have, by the way you’re acting.”

Like Luther, I suffer depression. I often feel like I am fading away, or like there is a veil that prevents me from looking within, or like I simply want to stay in bed forever. Like Luther, I have learned to cope most of the time. He seems to have figured out how his wife could help lift him from the depths. His wife, it appears, had a few tricks of her own to help him cope. I think most people who suffer fron depression develop some coping skills, even if they do not seek professional help.

Too often, though, pastors and others in Christian ministry dismiss the idea of Christians suffering from depression. One pastor I spoke to in preparation for this blog represents the attitude of many. When asked how he counsels parishioners with depression, he responded with, “… I also tell them that they have no need to be depressed because there is an inner joy that we as Christians possess.”

While what he says is true so far as it goes (Christians are blessed with an inner joy), he is misinformed. Depression is an illness not an attitude. Like any illness, the attitude of the patient can affect the sickness, but it does not cause or cure it. To tell that someone suffering from clinical depression is akin to telling a man who just suffered a heart attack that there is no need for bypass surgery because he has Jesus in his heart.

While pastoral education about depression and other mental illness is becoming more common, it is not yet common enough. Today, more Christian pastors are trained as counselors than ever before. The science of psychology has grown by leaps and bounds, just like all the sciences.

Personally, I have no doubt that, had my sarcoma been diagnosed in 1915 instead of 2015, I would have died a slow and miserable death. Had it been diagnosed in 2005 instead of 2015, I would have likely lost my leg. There have been so many miraculous medical advances in the last 100 years that practically no pastor would counsel a sick parishioner to change their attitude so that all will be well.

It is time to start viewing mental and emotional diseases like we do cancer and heart disease. Sure better attitudes help, but better attitudes don’t heal us. God heals us and He usually – but not always – does so through the hands of medical professionals.

Just as a pastor would advise someone with acute chest pains to go to the ER, a pastor should advise someone with chronic depression to seek medical attention. Besides that, though, what can pastors – or anyone – do for those in depression? Here are a few ideas:

• Do not be dismissive of their problems.
• Ask them how you may help.
• Sit with them without speaking if necessary.
• Let them know they can talk to you without judgment.
• Let them know you will support them emotionally and prayerful through the entire journey (do not say this if you don’t think you can handle it).
• Let them know you are their friend and would love to hang out whenever they are ready.
• Without condemnation and without cliche platitudes, help them look at the positive things in life.

We should remember, though, with every illness – physical or psychological – that though He usually works through the hands of doctors, it is God alone that heals. Every illness should be taken to God in prayer.

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We’ve all heard the story of the man sitting on his rooftop during a flood. You know it, he passes up a rescue boat, a helicopter, etc., saying he is trusting God to rescue him. This does, I suppose, shed light on the old adage, “God helps those who helps themselves.”

I’ve never had a problem helping myself. I reckon my biggest problem is that I help myself too much and fail to trust God enough. I tend to be proud, prone to action, and perhaps I don’t think things through. Quick to judge. Quick to anger. Of little faith. Because I know these things, I ask God to help me change them.

I find the converse of that story to also be true, or truer. Many Christians are apt to see a brother suffering some sort of flood in his life and do nothing more than pray for him. Here is how that story goes:

A man sits on his rooftop as flood waters rise, desperately praying to God and calling everyone he knows on his cell, saying, “My house is gone. If help doesn’t arrive soon, I’ll drown. Everyone he calls sympathizes, agrees with him in prayer, offers encouragement, but no one rescues him. Not even emergency responders come to his aid.

Of course, while this is just another illustration, there is truth to it. The Bible does not say, “God helps those who helps themselves.” No. That’s a Ben Franklin quote. The Bible speaks much more about how God helps the helpless than about helping oneself. Paul, in his letters talks much more about man’s weakness and God’s strength than man’s strength.

James in his epistle places great stock in faith, and he pairs it with action. It is not enough to know the Word and Will of God. We must act on it. We must put it into action (James 1:22-25). We are, the body of Christ and, though I do not understand it, God – who created all that exists – has chosen to work His will and His miracles through broken and repentant people like you and me. We are His body, His hands and His feet. Prayer Should compel us to act.

Too often I have been the recipient of a phone call from a flooded brother. I pray, but fail to act. I have sometimes (even recently) been the one drowning and ignored.

Don’t neglect your struggling Christian brothers and sisters. Don’t assume that everything will turn out all right for them in the end. They may get lost in the flood.

Micah 6:8 NIV – He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

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Reading the Bible alone, though, is not enough if you are seeking a deeper relationship with God. There needs to be equal parts Bible study and prayer. You see, that relationship – like any other – is a two way street.

Prayer, carrying on a conversation with God, allows you to get to know His heart. Prayer is also instrumental in allowing God to search your heart.

Learning God’s Word helps you understand the nature of God and His deepest desires for your life. The Bible is more than just a guideline for life. It is a standard by which to judge your own actions, thoughts, and dreams.

More than prayer and Bible study there is an even deeper practice: Christian meditation. Read a passage from the Bible every morning (use the same passage for multiple days if you wish), and every second that you spend idle – between tasks at work, while driving, while going to sleep, while taking a walk, or whenever you have a few seconds or a few minutes down time – ponder that passage or verse. If you cannot memorize verses, or even commit it to short-term memory, then write it down or put it in your phone, or text it to yourself. Read it, reread it, and reread it again. Pray on it, and remember: God is with you. There is no leaving Him behind.

Pray, read the Bible, mediate, and remember God is with you always. Take a walk with God. Hang on to His hand. Only He can keep you from falling.

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. – Jude 24-25 NIV

 

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