Any believer that spends any time at all in prayer will find themselves praying for family and friends that are sick. Each Wednesday night at Prayer Meeting we hand out a prayer sheet that is filled mostly with the names of individuals that are sick. Some will take the prayer sheet and pray over every name and need every day.
When Jesus walked on this earth, we find in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that there are 41 instances where Jesus miraculously healed an individual. You will not read in any of those four gospel accounts of Jesus ever failing to heal anyone that was brought to Him. So, the question in James 5:15-16a is not what God can do, but what is the “church,” the body of Christ to do. James 5:15-16a teaches us that the church is to respond to those are sick. In fact, James tells us that we are to pray that God would raise them up.
Today we are going to learn about praying for the sick.