A Faith that Works in Prayer

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”

~Bruce Lee (1940-1973), actor, director and martial artist

“I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.”

~Ravi Zacharias (1946-2020), author and Christian apologist

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

~John Bunyan (1628-1688), preacher and author of Pilgrim’s Progress

“Peace in the Bible is not a negative, the absence of hostilities, but rather a positive that includes everything necessary for human flourishing. It is a holistic word. Peace comes when our physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual needs are met.”

~Glenn Sunshine, history professor and author

Christ’s love towards us, and not our love towards Christ, is the true ground of expectation, and true foundation of hope.

~J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), Anglican bishop

“Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope.”

~C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“Christian hope rests upon the fact not that evil can be ignored, or that it will simply fade away, but that it has been judged at the cross.”

~David F. Wells, theologian, professor and author

“[K]now, at the end of the day, following Jesus is not necessarily designed to be safe. Safety is a natural desire but it can keep us from being like Jesus in the midst of an unsafe world.”

~The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon

“…the church is not a human society of people united by their natural affinities but the Body of Christ, in which all members, however different, (and He rejoices in their differences and by no means wishes to iron them out) must share the common life, complementing and helping one another precisely by their differences.”

~C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), writer and Oxford professor

SERMON PASSAGE

James 5:13-20 (ESV)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? 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. 15 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. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.