A Weekly Devotional – Prayer – Personal Meditation

A Weekly Devotional – Prayer – Personal Meditation

Comment: Do you pray? James in his epistle states that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much! Are you fervent (devoted)? If you have offended someone, do you confess with ‘one another’, do you pray for ‘one another’, James 5:16? “A new commandment I give you, that you love ‘one another’, by this (by this - what?) all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for ‘one another’. 

Devotional: The epistle of James expresses to us that FAITH obeys the WORD of God. Trials in our lives come and go, so do temptations, but the child of God who abides in the Word and who is devoted to walking by faith will not “crash and burn”! Prayer in the life of God’s children must be rooted in the Word and expressed by faith.

James epistle is not so much about whether faith and works are a “one over the other issue” but more about, how faith and works are revealed in the child of God at any given moment in time. James begins with the inner man (you and I personally before God). We are daily under trials and temptations.

Here are the trials and temptations of one day in the life of every child of God. The rich and poor, personal favoritism, the untamable tongue, personal pride versus godly humility, judging, boasting, patience and endurance, the specific needs of others and lastly the spiritual ability to bring back a sinning brother or sister. 

Laced within these trials and temptations is the meditation and prayer that personal faith requires if we are going to glorify God in the daily works that result from a devoted (fervent) faith. James states that if patience is to have a good and perfect result (work), faith must be perfect too. 

James begins his epistle on the subject of prayer, see (James 1:5). I am convinced  (James 5:13 to the end) that James is connecting the whole epistle to the implanted Word within the child of God and that prayer is the implicit thought running through the whole epistle. That, if you are not praying over every circumstance daily, than you have a doubting faith. Your works; which are not good, will burned up at the Bema Seat of Christ. See 2 Corinthians 5:9-13.