“FAILING TO PRAY”

16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,”

James 5:16

Have you ever made a promise to pray for someone, but for some reason, you failed, and later felt bad about it?

In our previous blog, we learned that Christians should strive toward becoming more effective representatives of Christ in this unbelieving world. As such, we should avoid cherry-picking Bible verses. 

Here’s another habit we should stop doing: telling Someone, “I’ll pray for you,” but failing to do so.

Maybe, like me, you have made a promise to someone that you’d pray for them, but you didn’t. Those times aren’t our proudest moments, and we should stop doing them.

Perhaps we forgot, or for any other reason, but pledging to pray for someone without actually doing so shows either a lack of sincerity in making promises or, worse, a lack of concern for others. Both are problematic, and I see a few reasons why.

First, we should not make promises at all (Ecclesiastes 5:5), especially if we are unsure of our ability to keep our word. God takes vows seriously. He doesn’t take them haphazardly. He wants us to keep our word or avoid making promises altogether. It is a sin to make a promise and fail to do it.

Second, forgetting to pray for others, especially those for whom we are committed to pray, is a failure to love them. Praying for one another is a biblical command. Failing to pray for our fellow believers is a failure to uphold this mandate; neglecting to pray for someone we have promised to pray for makes our failure even worse.

Let’s talk about today’s verse. What I think the writer is trying to say here is that Christians should have mutual honesty, openness, and a sharing of practical blessings to lift one another, particularly during trying times. He also says that we should pray for one another.

In other places of the Bible, we see that Paul asked the Thessalonians to pray for him, and even the Lord Jesus asked for the prayers of Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Praying for one another is one of the main characteristics of a true Christian church (Acts 2:42). It is both a duty and an act of love. Therefore, we should set aside a specific time to intercede on behalf of others. 

Your prayer might be the last step in someone coming to the Lord Jesus or being strengthened or saved from a catastrophic mistake. So, don’t miss the opportunity to bless others by praying for them, especially when you give them your word.

Pursue the Savior today!

Photo by Tony Lomas on Unsplash