James 5

Sometimes people ask me, "If God is sovereign, and he already knows everything that's going to happen, why should I pray?" Well James gives some insight here in chapter 5 that might help us with that question.

He offers one simple response to a variety of life's circumstances: prayer. Whether suffering or cheerful; sickness or sinful, James says we should pray. Not because it makes us feel good (though it often does), but because it can actually affect the outcome of our lives. Health is restored to those who are sick; forgiveness is given to those who have sinned (vs 15). "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much" (vs 16, emphasis added).

It is a mystery to us that prayer could be effectual to a God who knows the outcome of all things. Yet we have examples time and again in Scripture of men calling out to God, e.g.,  Moses, David, Elijah, Jonah, and God responding sometimes contrary to what he said he would do. They believed God would answer their prayers, and we should too.

In fact we must believe that God answers prayer! It may not be in our timing, or in the way we wanted, but that's why God's sovereignty is so comforting! Can you imagine if God just did what we humans asked him to do? That would be a scary place to live. Instead, we trust in a God who knows the outcome of all things. But he also ordained our prayer as a means to his ends. When we pray to God, we are not changing his mind; we are taking hold of what he is willing to bestow upon us, as Luther said.

So trust in God's goodness and his sovereignty as you call out to him in faith, trusting that fervent prayer can accomplish much.