Why is it so hard to pray? I don’t know about you, but sometimes I struggle to have intentional prayer for myself. I can pray with my family each night before bed, and I can pray for friends and people at church, but sometimes it’s hard to find personal time of prayer with God. I’m better than I used to be, but there’s still room for progress.

Do you struggle in your prayer life? Are you able to pray for others, but find it difficult to have your own personal time of prayer? Or do you have a strong prayer life when it comes to seeking God for your needs, but struggle to lift up others? Does it seem the only time you get serious about praying, crying out to the Lord, and seeking Him fervently is when you’re in the middle of a crisis?

As the apostle Paul would say, “this shouldn’t be.” In fact, the apostle Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians. 5:17). I need to do better. Can I get a witness? Anyone else struggle with their personal prayer time to God when you are not in crisis-mode?

We should make prayer a priority. It should be a knee-jerk reaction. Prayer is an intimate communication with God; we have direct access to Him through Christ. So why do we take this for granted? Maybe it’s because although prayer accesses grace, it does not always immediately take away the problem. But we are reminded in 2 Cor. 12:9 that God’s grace is sufficient. We need to ask for God’s grace to deal with the things in our life that concern us.

James 5 gives us several times to pray: When we are suffering hardship, when we are happy, when we are sick, and when we are spiritually weak.

James 5:13, “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.”

“Is anyone suffering? Let him pray.” It seems so simple, but unfortunately, we often turn prayer into a cliche.
“Just pray about it.” This phrase has become a bumper sticker for our faith. Maybe those words are spoken sincerely, but I think if we’re honest we would admit sometimes those words are not a call to get on our knees and come before a holy God.

We flippantly say, “Pray about it,” as an excuse to avoid doing the hard things we need to do as we live out our faith. True prayer is not a means to get us off the hook from “doing.” Prayer is an essential part of the “doing.” They can’t be separated. We can’t do what God wants us to do without continually coming to Him in prayer.

In prayer, God gives us direction, confirmation, wisdom, and discernment for our life. Prayer is what prepares us for doing the work He’s called us to do. And being “a doer of the Word” requires that we be people of prayer (James 1:22).

James 5:14, “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.”

Next, we are encouraged to pray for those who are sick as well as when we ourselves are sick. The word “sick” can mean without strength, or to be weary. In the Greek it can mean “to toil”, “to tire”, “to be faint”, “to be weary from constant work”, “to be faint at heart”, or “to become feeble”.

You ever had a situation in your life where your knees were buckling; the suffering you were experiencing was weakening you, and you needed support? What did you do? Did you call a trusted, faithful, godly friend? Did you reach out to your pastor? James 5:14 mentions that very thing. Reaching out to the church and asking for prayer, spiritual guidance, and wisdom in your situation.

Various versions of this verse in the bible say, “you should call” or “let him call.” Either way, the implication is a call to action. We have a step of obedience and humility to take. When we are weak and sick, we need the body of believers to come alongside us and hold us up. We need the support and encouragement of their prayers.

The “church” is supposed to look out for each other, but we have an individual responsibility to open our mouths and reach out to others when we are weak. How else will anyone know what we are going through and that we need help? Sometimes we are a broken mess and we slap a smile on our face and keep on walking. We keep on showing up and going through the motions. How will others know to reach out and pray when they talk to us, if we always reply with “I’m fine”, “I’m good”, “things are great”, or “not much going on here.”

I’m not saying we need to air our dirty laundry and overshare about things in our life, but we should definitely have a trusted godly friend or someone in whom we can confide to be a prayer warrior for us. Someone who will faithfully pray when we ask them to help us seek God’s will and intervention in our situation and life.

The “anointing oil” mentioned in James 5:14 refers in a sense to the refreshing that would be brought by the elders. When they were called to come and pray, they brought anointing oil. We may not bring actual oil to “anoint” someone, but the prayer we “bring” for them results in encouragement, assistance, and refreshing to the one who is weak. Don’t you want to be part of that? And wouldn’t it be nice to receive it?

Immediately I think of several members of my church who have lost their loved ones or endured horrible diagnoses. They reach out to our church and we pray for them, we set up a meal train, we give financially to the family, and we come alongside them to provide tangible “touch” to their hurting and weak moments.

I am reminded of the paralyzed man whose friends took him to Jesus in Luke 5. And in v. 20 it says, “and when Jesus saw their faith, He said, Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Did you catch that? When Jesus saw THEIR faith. The faith of that sick man was too weak, he needed help. His little faith was combined with the greater faith of his friends and Jesus took care of him. One day you may be the one on the pallet and you may need others in the body of Christ to take you to Jesus.

How encouraging to know that we have a God who wants us to come to Him! And how humbling that He invites us into what He’s doing! Let’s humble ourselves today and seek the Lord in prayer. It doesn’t have to be big, fancy words that you speak to Him. Prayer doesn’t have a time limit either. Praise Him for who He is and what He has done. Thank Him for the work He does on our behalf. Seek Him for guidance in your life. And ask Him to intervene for others.