Pray for One Another
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).
At times, when reading the scriptures, it is easy to miss something that is hidden in plain sight. The verse above is one that we can quickly read and miss a treasure that lies within.
Within the verse are two distinct commands. 1. Confess your sins to one another. 2. Pray for one another. The two commands are then followed by this curious phrase of promise, “…that you may be healed.”
How easy it is, in the midst of our problems and dilemmas, to become totally focused upon ourselves and our needs. It is easy to get tunnel vision in our praying and forget the world around us, to forget that we have brothers and sisters in Christ who are also going through their own personal valleys of trial and testing.
Over the years, I have experienced the following phenomenon that I believe is the essence of the phrase, “…that you may be healed.” When I have been able to get my focus off of myself and begin to pray for the needs of others, it seems as if God came in through the backdoor of my life and brought His healing grace to me, more times than not, in ways for that which I had not even made a conscious prayer.
I like to call this phrase, the reward of the intercessor, God’s healing and deliverance in our life, when we shifted our focus from ourselves and began to pray for one another.
