I saw this image a while ago and I remember on the surface of things I felt like this was a bad statement and untrue. How in the world could prayer ever not be enough, I thought to myself. Even my title I picked for this message gives off that same vibe but give me a moment to explain why I feel that this message is both true and fair.
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?” James 2:14-16
James address something very similar here. Faith without works is dead, this is the key to why this statement is true. So many of us are this exact way. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the statement “I’ll pray for you” passed on between people only for it to be a cliché most of the time. Worst yet, something that people of faith say out of respect to each others or when they don’t know what else to say. Sadly enough, to many of us never even pray for all the people we quote this to. Yes, we attend to most of the time but too many times we say things out of habit and not out of determination. So just saying that we will pray for someone doesn’t really help them if you never follow through, and especially in the way we would do so for someone that we are close to like our own child or spouse. We don’t put in the same efforts in our prayers for some people like we would for others we care more for and this can’t be the case.
And then there is prayers without corresponding actions. We pray for those people on the street, the sick and shut in, the weak, our enemies, and the helpless all the time. We will even pray for our local church. And yet when it’s time to give …this same effort is missing. It’s not enough to say you’re going to pray for someone or something and yet see a need of actions that would go along with that which you claim you will pray for and do nothing about it. What good is your faith without corresponding actions? This is the question the book of James asks. What is your answer? If the person on the street is suffering because they have no money to buy what they need, don’t think that just passing by and going home to pray for them is the only thing needed. Make sure there is nothing you can do to help them towards what you are praying for them about and don’t just assume it’s enough just to pray for them always. It wasn’t enough in the Book of James so align yourself up with your faith/actions and only then can your faith be in line with God’s will for your life.
Thechurch 