Youth · Day 6 of 7
Praying for Others
Read: James 5:13-20 (KJV)
13Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14Is any sick among you? 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: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 19Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Read the whole chapter ›What it means
James gives a simple rule for every season. Afflicted, or going through it? Pray. Merry? Sing psalms. Sick? Call others to pray with you. Prayer is meant to be part of everything, and it is not meant to be done alone all the time. Verse 16 tells us to confess our faults one to another and pray one for another. That takes trust, and it takes friends who actually care about your walk with God. Do you have even one friend like that? Are you that kind of friend to someone else? James then points to Elijah, and he makes a point of saying Elijah 'was a man subject to like passions as we are.' In other words, he was a normal person. He simply prayed earnestly, and God answered in a big way. Your prayers matter too. When you pray for a friend who is struggling, a family member who is sick, or a classmate who does not know Jesus, you are not wasting your time. 'The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.' The passage ends by encouraging us to help bring back those who wander from the truth. Praying for people is one of the most loving things you can do for them, even if they never find out.
Key verse
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
James 5:16 (KJV)
Journal it
- Write down the names of three people you want to pray for this week and what you are praying for each one.
- Do you have a friend you can be honest with about your struggles? If not, what is one step toward that?
- How does it change things to know Elijah was a normal person, just like you?
Write your answers in a notebook or the notes app on your phone.