Prayer-o-Therapy

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
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Title: Prayer-o-Therapy
Keywords: "prayer" "community"
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

Passage: James 5:16*

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Questions

1. For many people, prayer is considered an entirely private act. Does James, in the verse above, agree that prayer is solely private?

 

2. What possible therapy can you envision receiving from having others pray for you?

 

Practical help

There is no question that a Christian’s private practice of prayer is a gift to enjoy. Praying to God, by himself or herself, the believer enters into communion with the Creator and the Savior.

But, for 2,000 years, Christians have also understood the benefits that come when they pray together. Check out the mighty prayer meeting recorded in Acts, chapter 5, when the place where they had gathered was literally shaken. Or, later, in Acts 13, when the church leaders in Antioch got together to pray and fast, and were prompted to send Barnabas and Saul (later, the apostle Paul) on the first missionary journey.

James tells us that in addition to receiving boldness and direction, corporate prayer can bring healing. While there is, doubtless, a reference to the healing of broken bodies in this verse, there can also be little doubt that James had in mind the healing of broken spirits, too. Why else would he tie in the confession of sins with the exhortation to pray!

Victory over a besetting sin like addiction to porn can be won, but it’ll take the big guns of prayer. Why not go ahead and tell a friend or two of your need? Ask them to pray for you. What have you got to lose but the habit you hate?

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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."