A Must

James 5 cont’d:

Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord…

Suffering is part of life.  But we are not alone in our suffering, and we are not to sit down and suffer in pity and agony.  We are told here that we MUST pray.

Joy and cheerfulness are part of life, as well.  We are not to keep this joy to ourselves, but we are to sing out praises.

Sickness will hit our bodies at times.  Again, we are told to reach out to others, that we MUST call for prayer…in the name of the Lord.

It’s interesting here, every part of our lives is not to be experienced alone. 

When we suffer, we tend to want to retreat from those who aren’t suffering like we are.  When we’re happy, we are prone to forget to thank the Lord.  And when we’re sick, we often discount the effectiveness of prayer.

The key here is prayer and praise.

Both are a MUST, whatever place we find ourselves in today.