The Prayer of a Righteous Person

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Recently, I was asked if I would preach a sermon on prayer. I said I would try to do that the next time that prayer was the subject of one of our texts. Well, here it is: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). Then I began to regret answering that way. That’s a challenging verse in a challenging epistle.

I’ve made it a point to preach on the epistles from James during September; and when I arrived at this one, my first thought was, “Maybe it’s time to preach on the Gospel for a Sunday.” The reason for the challenge is this: when we think of “the power of prayer,” the antennae start to twitch as we think about televangelists with unusual hairdos who define the power of prayer something like this: “As long as you have enough faith, God will give you whatever your heart desires.” We want to avoid that ditch; the easy way to do so is to give prayer little attention. However, prayer is far too precious and powerful: we neglect it at our peril.

What I would like to do with this sermon is lay some groundwork on prayer in part one, and then run through the epistle in part two.

Of the four points to make about prayer, here’s the first: as our text says, prayer is powerful stuff, though in ways you might not have thought about before. Consider this: on the usual Sunday morning, I need a microphone and speakers to make sure that I’m heard at the back of this room—and even then, being heard and being understood are two different things. Prayer is far from that limited: a whispered prayer—a silent prayer! —reaches the heights of heaven. If man puts all the power at his disposal together, he can’t beam a single word into God’s ear. But when you pray, it gets there. Prayer is not a privilege reserved for a select few, but a gift for all believers, making it powerful and accessible to each one of us.

That’s not the only reason prayer is powerful: when you pray, the entire Holy Trinity is at work to hear and to answer. The Holy Spirit “intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26-27), making your petitions acceptable to your Father in heaven. God the Father hears your prayers—that’s why the Lord’s Prayer starts the way it does (Matthew 6:9). Meanwhile, Jesus—having been crucified for our sins and raised again—now sits at the Father’s right hand, and as your High Priest, He intercedes for you (Hebrews 7:25-26). As you pray, Jesus prays for you, too. As your High Priest forever, He assures you that God hears your prayers, for He declares you to be one for whom He has died. This divine support and guidance in prayer should fill you with a sense of comfort and confidence.

There’s a third way prayer is powerful: the Father does more than hear. He also answers, and He answers in the way that is best for you. Jesus declares, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you” (John 16:23). Kings can command and demand all they want, but none of their authority moves God to hear or lift a finger. God will answer when you pray in Jesus’ name—that is, according to His will. He’s promised.

Given those examples, prayer is powerful stuff. But note: all the power is the Lord’s—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s not that you make the prayer powerful. You’re praying with borrowed power. This should inspire and motivate you to pray more, knowing that you are tapping into the unlimited power of the Almighty.

Our text mentions Elijah as an example. During the reign of King Ahab, “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.” Was it Elijah who made the rain stop and then start again? No, it was the Lord’s power at work. Elijah prayed at the Lord’s bidding. Someone said that when we pray, we’re like a child sitting on a father’s lap behind the wheel of a tractor: our hands are on His, steering the wheel. Not a bad image of prayer: that was Elijah, and that is us.

So, prayer is powerful. My second point about prayer is this: prayer is possible because of the cross. Remember the start of the Lord’s Prayer again: “Our Father, who art in heaven.” He is your Father because you are His child. Why are you His child? Because He has made you His child in Holy Baptism. Why? For the sake of Jesus, who died on the cross for you and forgives you through water and the Word.

God hears the prayers of the righteous, and you are righteous because Jesus has made you righteous. Righteousness, in this context, means being in right standing with God, not because of our own actions, but because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Those who do not believe have no such assurance that the Lord hears their prayers. Consider Proverbs 15:29, “The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous;” or 1 Peter 3:12: “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” It’s clear that God hears and answers your prayers because of His Son’s death on the cross for you.

My third point about prayer is this: prayer is what the faithful do. It is not just a religious duty or a last resort in times of trouble, but it is to be as much a part of life as breathing. Just as we need to breathe to live, we need to pray to maintain our spiritual life. God speaks His Word into us, and we speak it in prayer back to Him. Thus, says St. Paul, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). If we are not praying, it is a bad sign about our faith. After all, if prayer is powerful, springing from the cross, and has the triune God at work to hear and answer, what would possibly discourage us from praying?

Well, clearly, the devil, the world, and your flesh will discourage you from praying since they’re vehemently opposed to the cross, the triune God, and petitioning Him for help.

But another part, too, tends to dog us Westerners. It’s my fourth point: prayer is a mystery. Even with all we’ve laid out so far, you don’t know quite what it accomplishes—you don’t know why you’re doing it, other than God tells you to. You don’t know how much power is going into it. Since the Holy Spirit is re-forming your prayers for the Father’s ears, you’re not always sure what you’ve prayed. No matter how much you pray, you often don’t see the results.

You don’t know what you’ve accomplished, beyond remembering a list of people in need and mentioning them to God. That’s a lot of things you don’t know, and things we don’t know discourage us as we find ourselves asking, “What exactly does this accomplish?”

You don’t know. But you do know what Christ has accomplished on the cross. You also know that, for His sake, God hears and answers your prayers.

Therefore, be aware of two ditches you want to avoid—two misunderstandings about prayer that would rob you of joy.

One false understanding is this: the power of prayer comes from us to make God do whatever we want Him to. It’s often taught that prayer is our chance to influence God to act according to what we want. If we’re extra fervent in prayer, we have more influence. If ten pray instead of one, we’ve increased that influence tenfold. But God doesn’t do math that way: the one who prays alone prays with as much power as that of ten because the power of prayer lies in God, not man.

Furthermore, prayer is not an opportunity to influence God to act according to our will: remember, to ask in God’s name is to pray, “Thy will be done,” not “My will be done.” So, we must avoid the idea that prayer is a chance to get God to do things our way.

The reaction to this can go too far, though, and this is the other ditch: it is to believe that prayer accomplishes nothing at all. It’s just an exercise, something that God makes us do, like a parent telling a teenager to check in every hour, on the hour. But it really doesn’t do anything more than remind us of people who need help, since God’s going to do what God is going to do.

I’m afraid that’s not right, either: our epistle doesn’t let us get away with this. God doesn’t assign busy work to watch us jump through hoops. Remember that prayer is a mystery: it is accomplishing things even if we do not understand.

Now, remembering the four points and two ditches, let’s look at the epistle.

“Is anyone among you suffering?” asks James. “Let him pray.” Suffering is a good time for prayer; in fact, it is often one of the times when we actually remember to pray. It is a godly prayer to ask the Lord to relieve your suffering according to His will, and, in the meantime, to grant you the patience and strength to endure. While we cannot demand that God explain Himself (because He doesn’t promise to), there’s nothing wrong with asking that the Lord teach you what He would want you to know. And if nothing else, this is what you know: you’re His for Jesus’ sake, bought with the holy, precious blood of the Son of God. Therefore, you know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. That would be you, child of God.

So, pray, even when the only prayer you can eke out in suffering is along the lines of, “Lord, have mercy.” That’s as much as many of the sick in the Gospel prayed, and the Lord heard and had mercy. After all, the Triune God is at work in the prayers of those baptized in the name of the Triune God. Pray, for the prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working, not the least of which is driving the devil away as you affirm that you are the Lord’s for Jesus’ sake.

The text continues: “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.” Cheerfulness often distracts us from prayer; rather, the devil uses good times to distract us so we forget to pray. But things and times that bring godly cheer are gifts from God, and to sing praise is to acknowledge what God has done for you. That would include thanks to Him for providing the cheer, prayers that it not become an idol, and thanks to Him that—even when the cheerfulness fades—you know that you are still His for the sake of Jesus. It is good to sing praise to God when cheerful, because the prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working.

The text continues: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the church's elders, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Anointing with oil seems to be one of those gifts given to the apostles, like the ability to handle snakes, which God does not continue through history. It can be done, but Scripture attaches no promise to it.

But we pastors spend a fair amount of time visiting the sick and are happy to do so. Sickness is a manifestation of sin, a testimony of the fall. The devil will use it to raise doubts and accuse. It is good to hear the Word when sick and to know that you are most assuredly the Lord’s, despite what your lack of health may seem to imply.

So, as the one who is suffering is commanded to pray, so are pastors, and the Church is commanded to pray for those who are sick. James adds, “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.”

Though prayer is connected here, it is God who does the healing and forgiving. That is His work, not ours; by His power, not ours. His use of our prayer in this is up to Him. It is given to us to pray, trusting that the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working, but again, what that power affects is not known to us, for the power and the glory are the Lord’s.

So, the text continues, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” If you have wronged somebody else, confess to them. If you have been wronged, pray for them—trusting that the Lord hears and answers. One of the best things we can do for our enemies is to pray for them, for since all the power of prayer is the Lord’s, it is something that we can do for our enemies that won’t be clouded by our failings and sins.

Thus, St. James bids us to pray. There is power there, just not ours. God is at work beyond our understanding. Nor is it given to us to try to figure it out, but to accept what the Lord says. As children of God by faith, we pray and believe what the Lord says about the power of prayer.

So we give thanks to God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who exercises His power to us chiefly in mercy and pity but using His Word and Sacraments. His is the power and the glory, shared with you by His grace in His Word and attached to your prayers by His promise. Rejoice then, dear friends. The Lord hears your prayers and acts upon them. You can be sure of this because you are forgiven for all of your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen  

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.