Day 347

December 13th
James 4:1-5:20; 1 Timothy 1:1-2:15.  “Prayer Spoken”
         A young minister, learning that a woman from Boston who was visiting in town had been taken ill, stopped in to cheer her up.  “I’d like to say a brief prayer for your recovery,” he suggested.  The woman responded, “That won’t be necessary, young man, I’m being prayed for in Boston.”
         James has addressed a variety of topics relevant to the power of the spoken word.  Of course, his list of topics would not be complete without mentioning prayer.  To the suffering he encourages them to keep praying about it.  To those who have reason to be thankful he exhorts to continually sing praises to the Lord.  To those who are sick he urges them to ask the elders to pray over them.  He then talks about a “prayer offered in faith.”  This is quite different than some who have “faith in their prayer.”  It may seem trivial, but a prayer offered in faith is one that yields to God’s will, whereas faith in a prayer is a belief that we will dictate how God will answer. 
Prayer is our spoken word to God.