"Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any 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: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working" (James 5:13-16).

Prayer works. Even when God answers in the negative, when righteous men pray, good things happen. Faith is increased and confirmed. People are urged by prayer to more thoughtful and sober behavior and speech. Fellowship is increased where the people of God pray together.

Prayer is on the of the ways that we talk to God. We dare not speak to God as we would speak to one of the neighbors, yet there is in prayer an opportunity to be intimate, to pour out the deepest thoughts of joy or sadness. When James tells the suffering Christian to pray, he is not giving some kind of magic formula to do away with the suffering. He is telling us that God listens patiently to our complaints. David said, "Cast thy burden upon Jehovah, and he will sustain thee: He will never suffer the righteous to be moved" (Psa. 55:22). Peter, in similar tones, tells us, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:6-7).

Separated by a thousand years, David and Peter experience the same thing their praying. It works. "Cast thy burden upon Jehovah" and "casting all your anxiety upon him." David’s emphasis is on the firmness of God’s promise to defend and strengthen the one who prays. He gives us courage, he enlightens us through the word, and he forgives us – he cleanses us that we might be fit vessels in his service.

Peter reminds us that God cares for us. He is sympathetic and compassionate in our times of need. He knows every hair of our head, every malfunction of every atom of our being, and he certainly knows the pain and anxiety we feel in time of trial. But the thrust of Peter is that we should humble ourselves to admit the help of God. Too often we think that we can handle our problems without prayer. Then comes that big problem that we can’t handle, and we don’t know how to pray. I don’t mean we don’t know the mechanics. I mean we cannot humble ourselves to make prayer a primary instrument in combating our problems. Then we are truly lost.

"In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6-7). Prayer takes care of the anxiety of life if we can humble ourselves to trust God and pray. Through prayer we have the peace of mind that men have searched for all of our history. It is because we can talk to God about our troubles that, even in the darkest hour, we can rejoice.

All that being said, we must again assert that prayer does work. Often we tell friends our problems because we need to let it out. Our best friends are the ones who listen as we go on. But God is a friend who listens patiently and can do something about it.

God asks in Jeremiah, "Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?" (Jer. 32:27). Jeremiah considers all of the wondrous things that God has done in his might and answers, "Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thine outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for thee" (vs. 17). God can do what he decides to do, and there is nothing to stop him.

Time and again, in the Psalms, David faces death by the enemy or disease, and God delivers him. King Hezekiah was ill unto death. Isaiah came and told him to set his house in order. But it says of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20:2, "Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Jehovah." God gave him fifteen more years.

Don’t get the wrong impression. God doesn’t always answer in the affirmative. But he often does, as the evidence of the Scripture and our experience in praying shows. Jesus promised, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matt. 7:7-11). The promise of Jesus is that God answers. He is a good and loving father who provides for his children. Sometimes God says no to us. Sometimes we ask for the stone or the serpent. God still gives us the fish and the bread. He gives us what we need.

So many of us have given up on God. We don’t pray as we ought, or we pray as though we were resigned to whatever misfortune awaits. That is like saying, "Pray and you might get lucky." God hears and God acts. We don’t always know how, and sometimes we do. But the evidence of his work is all around us. When Paul said, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17), that was not just to give us something to do. It is not a useless endeavor, and God will take care of us anyway. Prayer works.

"The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working" (James 5:16). Prayer works!