James 5:16 (NIV): “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
James encourages all of us to pray for each other that we may be healed. James goes on to say that “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Then he gives Elijah as the example.
James 5:17 (NIV): “Elijah was a human being, even as we are.”
Elijah was the greatest Old Testament prophet, but he was not so extraordinary that he cannot be a model for prayer. He didn’t experience miracles just because he was a unique spokesmen for God. Elijah was just like us, so we can be encouraged that OUR prayers will have great effect—like stopping the rain for three and a half years.
We should think of our praying in the same category with a great miracle worker of the Bible. All of us should be praying for each other. Our goal in praying should be to live and pray in a way that would have the same kind of healing effects as Elijah had when he prayed for rain after a three-year drought.
Where do we get our beliefs?
Three theological perspectives have significantly shaped my Christian identity: Evangelicalism, the early Methodist tradition and liberation theology.
From my coming to faith in a Baptist church and throughout my education in a Baptist school and college, I was nurtured by convictions that emphasized a spiritual rebirth, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the centrality of the Bible. Even when I disagree with certain aspects of evangelicalism, it has deeply influenced my sense of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
My seminary studies spawned my interest in early Methodism, particularly its approach to spiritual formation. Its leaders were convinced that only a foundation of doctrine and discipline would lead to a meaningful transformation of the heart and mind. In other words, having the mind of Christ enables me to be more like Christ.
Life in a suburban culture obscures the increasing gap between the poor and rich, as well as the Bible’s close identification with the poor. My doctoral work in socio-cultural context exposed me to liberation theology, which helps me see redemptive history as a history of oppressed groups, written from the perspective of the powerless, about a God who is actively involved with the poor in their struggles.
I am now the pastor at Mount Zion United Methodist Church in St Mary’s County, Maryland. Together my wife and I have 4 children.
The Other Six Days 