Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 2 November 2021 | Tuesday Message
TOPIC: Pray for All the Souls
SCRIPTURE: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” – James 5:16
MESSAGE: Various cultures throughout the world either pray for, or to, the dead. I think I know why. It’s because we aren’t afraid to say what comes to our mind when we pray to the dead. Their ears are closed. They can’t raise their eyebrows. They can’t judge. Dead souls tell no tales.
But if we heed God’s Word, our attention is to be paid to the live souls in our midst. And that’s where we falter. But consider these words from James 5:16: “Therefore confess your sins to each other.”
“Aagh! What a terrible thought,” we respond. Telling another Christian that we’ve lied or lusted seems out of the question. “Why would we do that?” Because other Christians are to “pray for each other.”
We confess our sins so that our brother can pray for us. Such prayer will assume complete trust, compassion, and acceptance. No judgment of any kind is mentioned by James. In fact, just the opposite. We are to “pray for one another so that [we] may be healed.”
You see, when we sin our soul becomes sick. Just like when you come down with a cold, you aren’t at full capacity. Prolonged unconfessed sin will eventually gnaw like a cancer and leave us virtually dead, spiritually. And when you feel that you are at the point of no return, look at what James says next: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
Just think: If we turned our attention to all the souls in need of confession, prayer, and healing, it would revitalize our churches and draw great numbers into the kingdom.
PRAY: Lord, make my life one of confession before my brother and sister. Show me my sin that I might go to my brother for his prayers. And make me sensitive enough to pray without judging when my brother or sister comes to me.
Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 2 November 2021 is taken from Diamonds in the Dust – By Joni Eareckson Tada