here is the text for james 5:15: "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven."
question one: how much faith is enough to satisfy the requirement?
question two: why doesn't this work today, every time?
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Again, here's my best guesses:
1. How much faith is enough? It's apparently more than I got.
2. Why doesn't it work? This verse, I think, is something of an anomaly. James' situation in Jerusalem must have been unique. He speaks of healing WAY too confidently.
He seems to ignore, if not contradict, Paul's comments about the thorn in the flesh in 2 Cor. 12. I think James has given millions of Christians, for 2,000 years, an improper measure of hope.
What do YOU think? You've asked lots of questions, but I'd really like to hear your perspectives. You've obviously given this a lot of thought and have likely heard a lot of input.
yes, i have asked a lot of questions, and yes, i am due to make my own attempts at answers. and yes, i have given this a lot of thought. that does not make me an expert, or even that knowledgable about the subject. i am able to raise far more questions than i can answer. that being said, i will try to fill in some gaps.
i am absolutely convinced that the 'amount' or 'level' of faith required for viable prayer is irrelevant. if answered prayer depended on our level of perfection, then prayer would be futile. in the gospels, the syro-phonecian woman had enough faith to get her request granted. she was not a jew, much less a practicing jew. i don't know how much faith she actually had in Jesus' healing power. all i can say is that she was a desperate mother willing to do ANYTHING to get help for her daughter. and she knew that jesus was no snake oil salesman. that was enough. being a true believer is never about getting everything right; living by faith will let you get more things 'right' than any human effort ever could.
perhaps it is time for a summary post. i have a few days off from work this week, so i will gather my thoughts for a post on 'here is what i think so far'.
In an email apart from these posts, you made several compelling remarks:
1. "Part of the energy behind my quest to understand prayer is dealing with the perceptions of non-christians.
This, too, has been a driving concern of mine. Like you, I've been in the ministry and in the business world. Consequently, I've been increasingly concerned about the popular perception of Christians. It ain't good, but it should be.
2. "There is a Christian sub-culture, with its own vocabulary and idiom, that may people practice without thinking. They say things they heard other devout Christians say in a similar context. It may sound good or right, but it may not be either."
This statement also resonates deeply with me. I wouldn't call it a sub-culture. For me, it IS the dominant Christian culture.
It's all too common for today's Christian to mimic the vocabulary and behavior of "popular Christianity." It's like they enjoy being in a secret club with a secret handshake, secret passwords, and a double-secret decoder ring. Outsiders see this behavior, and like me, they want to puke.
I run into all-too-few Christians who are attempting to be biblical Christians who adopt culturally relevant speech and behavior. It sounds like you and I are among the few. The most disheartening thing is ... I think that many mindless robotic Christians tend to view me as something less than a "real Christian" because I don't participate in their secret passwords and handshakes.
It might seem that all of this has nothing to do with prayer, but I think it has everything to do with our common prayer problem. "Popular Christianity" (as I call it) has drifted into some self-defeating language and behavior with regard to prayer. Today's Christians need a good slap in the face to wake up and realize that they're not making sense.
in our church services yesterday, part of the sermon emphasized the need to pray about what we should plan to do for the coming year. abram was used as an illustration of what can go wrong when you do not consult God before you make decisions: went to egypt instead of staying in the promised land and praying to God for help while facing a famine, etc. the assumption was that if abram had asked God for advice first, he would have known what to do (God would have answered) and none of that bad stuff would have happened. for me, i don't share that view. based on my experience, i have no assurance that God would have immediately given abram the right answer so as to avoid problems. i don't pretend to have enough smarts to arrive at long-sought answers to questions that have withstood scrutiny for centuries. i am simply saying that what popular xianity says and assumes about prayer may be bogus. i admire and support folks who really try to put their faith to work, but the practical gaps still bother me.
here is a clarification on a comment i made earlier about being sensitive to the perceptions of non-christians. i do not let their perceptions limit what i say or do as a believer. but i do have to ask myself, when they make an objection, is there anything to it? i do not mean to be pejorative when i say this, but, i believe i have lived in the xian cocoon for most of my life. i have been comfortable there. teaching and serving in that arena has been beneficial, but it has been mostly 'on the inside'. in a sense, jesus spent most of his time on the 'inside', talking to jews. but the genuine ease he showed in crossing jew/gentile boundaries continues to amaze me. me, i don't know how to discuss spiritual things with a 'gentile' without getting into an argument.
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