James 5:16b:—“The supplication of a righteous man availeth much.”
I WANT to speak to you this afternoon about prayer, and I have chosen a text which, if we cannot quite say of it that it brings prayer before us at the height of its idea, yet, certainly, presents its value to us in the most emphatic way.
Men ask, What is the use of praying? Above all, What is the use of bringing specific petitions to the throne of the Almighty? “To crave boons you know little of, from a God of whom you know nothing at all, save that you have made him in your own image—of what profit can that be?” That is the language of unbelief.
Much, however, which passes for belief asks practically the same thing in somewhat more chastened forms of speech. This half belief also asks, What is the use of praying? We must have a very low conception of God, it suggests, to suppose that He does not know how to govern His universe without our telling Him. Do we really think He will subordinate His wisdom to the demands of our folly? Cannot we leave the direction of affairs to Him? If He be, indeed, a good and wise God, must we not leave it to Him? Why rush hysterically into His presence and demand that the universe be ruled according to our notions? Are we competent to give Him advice? Do we fancy that we know what is best even for ourselves, as He does not? He cannot hear us unless He be God; He certainly ought not to hearken to us if He be God. If He is “mighty enough to make laws,” why should we think Him “weak enough to break them” at our request? Prayer is in effect an attempt to undeify the Deity and substitute our will for His will. It is not only foolish and immoral, therefore, but supremely self-contradictory. We cannot attempt it save on the supposition that it is God whom we are addressing; we would not attempt it if we really believed that He whom we are addressing is God. Of one thing, at least, we may be assured, that it is of no use to pray.
Well, you see, it is precisely to this point that our text speaks. It speaks not of prayer in general, but of the specific act of petition. “Supplication,” our Revised Version calls it. It is that precise act of prayer which is the making of a request, the urging of a desire, the preferring of a petition. And what it says about it is that so far from its being of no use, it is of very great use. “The prayer,“—or more specifically, the “petition,” the “request,” the “supplication”—“of a righteous man availeth much,” “is of great value,” “exerts great power.” There is another word in the sentence, but as it is of somewhat doubtful interpretation and in no way qualifies the sense of the declaration for our present purpose, we may pass it by here. It is variously rendered as qualifying the prayer of the righteous man that availeth further as “earnest”; or as indicating the source from which such a prayer alone can come, by affirming that it is “inwrought” in him, that is, by the Holy Ghost; or as further describing the value of it as availing “in its working.” It is obvious that whether we say “the fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much,” or “the prayer of a righteous man availeth much, seeing that it is inwrought,” or “the prayer of a righteous man availeth much in its working,” the one main thing asserted in every case is that a righteous man’s prayer is of high value; that it is strong to obtain its end; that it is fully worth offering up.
And this emphatic assertion is buttressed immensely by its context. The assertion is made in order to encourage the readers to pray for one another, and for themselves. To pray for one another when they are sick; to pray for one another when they are soul-sick. If any is sick among you, exhorts James, send for the elders of the Church and have them pray over such an one; and the prayer of faith shall heal the sick; yes, and if he have any sin on his conscience, it will heal that sin. And all of you—why, confess your sins to one another—and pray for one another, and the prayer will bring healing. Take everything to God. If you are suffering go in prayer; if you are in joy go in praise. But in any and every case, go. It is strong and reiterated advice, you see. Go continually, go always, to God. Go, go, because prayer is not of no profit; but, on the contrary, the “prayer of a righteous man profiteth much!” And then James supports this central declaration with a most telling example. It is taken from the life of Elijah. Elijah prayed. He was a man just like us. And he got what he prayed for. And it was no little thing he asked for. He asked for drought and he asked for rain. And he got the drought and the rain he asked for. See, says James in effect, see, how much the prayer of a righteous man is good for!
It looks as if we could not easily find a stronger assertion of the value of prayer; and of prayer at the very apex of its difficulty as I have said; prayer, specifically as petition. But I do not wish this afternoon to confine our thoughts to this one point, the value of petition, but to take encouragement from this emphatic assertion of the value of prayer, and direct our minds to a general consideration of prayer in the large.