James 5:13 “If any of you are suffering, they should pray. If any of you are happy, they should sing.”
This week we are entering into the final week of our series on James. We’ll be focusing this week on prayer and it’s power.
“Are any of you suffering?” This is the first thing we come to is the idea of suffering. I find that we tend to over think suffering and try to make this as something really bad. This is one of the reasons, I believe, many people avoid praying because our “problems” or “issues” may not seem big enough to “bother” God with our “little lives.”
Suffering is defined as, “pain that is caused by injury, illness, loss, etc. : physical, mental, or emotional pain sufferings : feelings of pain.” So, with this definition, we all suffer on some level.
One thing I would like to take care of first is reminding us that, no matter how small or insignificant we think our problems or issues are, God loves when we communicate our “sufferings.”
The Apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:6, “Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks.” Anything we go through or have on our minds or hearts, we can bring up to God and express our thoughts and our feelings. We don’t not have to be in a place where we think our problems are big enough for God. We have a God who wants us to bring to Him any and every part of our life.
Praying is a sense of release of the burdens we carry on our hearts. This means that we have a chance to experience joy. Through joy, we can sing our praises. Singing expresses joy in our hearts. This joy is then expressed throughout our actions and our relationships.
What is it you need to pray about today (big or small) to release it off your heart and allow God to fill your spirit with joy and happiness?
The best part is that it doesn’t require any special words or phrases. Simply talk with God as you would another person.
: pain that is caused by injury, illness, loss, etc. : physical, mental, or emotional pain
sufferings : feelings of pain
R Y A N S T R A T T O N 