September 3, 2024 • 24 mins
Imagine navigating life's toughest challenges with the power of prayer as your guiding light. In this episode of Words for Change, join me, Lionel, as we break down the profound quote, "Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you," illustrating how faith and action can coexist harmoniously. We'll unravel the ongoing political debate over reproductive rights, spotlighting the contrasting viewpoints of former President Trump and Vice President Harris, and delve into a crucial new California bill safeguarding performers from unauthorized AI exploitation.
we dive deep into the biblical passage of James 5:13-15, exploring the profound lessons on prayer, faith, and healing. Whether you're seeking spiritual guidance or looking to deepen your understanding of scripture, this video will illuminate the powerful connection between prayer and healing as taught in the Bible.
📜 Key Themes Covered:
- The significance of prayer in times of suffering and joy
- The role of anointing with oil in spiritual and physical healing
- The "prayer of faith" and its implications for believers
- The communal aspect of healing within the early Christian church
✝️ Biblical Insights & Theological Analysis: We break down the text, drawing on recent scholarly research and historical context to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how these verses have shaped Christian practice and belief.
Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello.
Words for Change podcast.
This is Lionel.
Hey, welcome here on this TacoTuesday day, man.
It is September.
The month of September isactually my birthday month.
So, boy, I am super excitedabout aging.
No, I'm not.
It's September 3rd and this isWords for Change podcast.
(00:22):
This is Lionel, here on thisTaco Tuesday man.
Famous quote that's going tohelp us with our topic today the
greatest trick the devil everpulled was convincing the world
he didn't exist.
The famous quote comes fromAugustus of Hippo.
He said this pray as thougheverything depends on God.
Work as though everythingdepends on you.
(00:45):
This is a perfect definition, aperfect example of divine
intervention and humanresponsibility.
We'll talk about that more inthe segments ahead.
Good morning Vietnam.
What about the news?
What's happening in the news?
What's happening in the news?
Well, as you know, we are wellon our way to November
(01:09):
presidential election.
And speaking of the news,president Trump sorry, former
President Trump is stillstruggling to navigate this.
Reproductive rights it's stilla political issue that is in the
forefront, political issue thatis in the forefront.
Trump declared in a debate overreproductive rights and the
(01:33):
former president is still, youknow, straining on this new era
of Roe versus Wade politics andsort of taking a stance right.
A survey said that many peoplesomewhere between 55 percent of
voters think, uh, the vicepresident, harris, is better
equipped to tackle this issue ofreproductive health and, uh,
(01:55):
women's right to choose, so tospeak, compared to 30 percent of
trump supporters.
So this is sort of seven andten voters focus on abortion,
favor Harris over Trump.
So it's really interesting takehere of what's happening in our
society around this topic.
(02:16):
You know it's doing an electionyear, so all gloves are off.
Check this out y'all.
(02:41):
There is a bill to protectperformers from authorized AI
use.
This bill that heads toCalifornia governor.
A new bill to protectperformers from unauthorized AI
is now headed to the governor ofCalifornia, matt GPT, gemini
(03:03):
and some other very, very famousand growing.
Artificial intelligence theycan create replicas is a major
concern for the entertainmentindustry.
You will remember the Hollywoodstrikes not that long ago with
a major concern.
There was the likeness ofactors and their voices being
(03:24):
used to create movies, and sothe national proposal was
offered to protect, to offer AIprotection for those workers.
California Assembly Bill 2602would regulate the use of
generative AI for performers,not only those on screen in
films and TV and streamingservices, but also for those
(03:49):
using their voice and bodymovements in their likeness,
such as audio books and videogames.
I used to be a video game player.
The only video game I playedwas one, call of Duty, but the
other one I played was a collegefootball video game called NCAA
.
Well, they stopped producing Ithink it was I can't remember
(04:13):
the name of the company thatproduced that video game because
many of the players werecomplaining that the
universities were making weremaking substantial amount of
financial gain and benefit fromtheir likeness, but the players
(04:35):
weren't receiving any of thosebenefits.
And that became a conversation.
Because I don't know if you'veplayed sports, but outside of
season, so outside of footballseason, many of the players
didn't have adequate food totake care of themselves.
(04:55):
Season, right, uh, they mayhave had access to some of the
benefits, but doing uh duringseason, if their sport wasn't in
, they didn't have access tomany of those benefits.
Okay, so that became an issue.
So, um, the bill was passedy'all um in california and the
(05:23):
legislation was also supportedby uh a lot of unions.
Uh, duncan crabtree, ireland,points out that the bill had
bipartisan support and was notopposed to industry groups such
as motion picture association,which represents studios like
netflix, paramount pictures.
(05:47):
Once again, ai is on the rise,and I think it's something that
we have to at least keep oureyes on, if nothing else.
Now, what does that have to dowith our topic today?
(06:12):
Our topic is around the wholeconcept of prayer and why prayer
is important, not aftersomething bad happens, but
before it happens.
And she said that sometimeswhat we have a tendency to do is
(06:33):
that we want to sort of haveprayer snacks.
I never heard prayer mentionedin that way.
Prayer snacks instead of a fullmeals.
Like a relationship, arelationship that's full of
excitement, but we don't investthe time and energy necessary
(06:53):
for that relationship to have ameaning and have be robust in
that relationship, to beexciting, to be a part of Right.
(07:24):
Jesus always talks about thegospel, talks about how our
focus is not to be so on.
So much on the concept that we,even though we, live in a
physical world, but what our,our commitment to prayer says is
that we're also part of anotherkingdom, and so when we get
into this mode of praying right,what we're simply saying is
(07:47):
that there we believe in divineintervention, sort of what
Augustus talked about, talkedabout in our opening quote, that
we do believe that we havehuman responsibility, but we
also believe in divineintervention.
And so, even though thesethings are happening in the news
(08:09):
and this is a political season,and you know wherever you stand
on that we don't take aparticular stance here but
wherever you stand during thisseason, you have to remember
that your hope down into themundanity of what's happening in
(08:34):
our world and influence ourworld, influence people, right.
James, chapter five, verse 13,says this Right, when we talk,
think about prayer and that ifanyone in you that's in trouble,
let him pray.
If there's any of you who arecheerful, let him sing songs.
(08:57):
This is verse 14.
If there's any among you sick,let them call for the elders of
the church and let them prayover him or her, anointing them
with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer offered in
faith will restore the one whois sick and the Lord will raise
him or her up, and if he or shehas committed sins, they will be
(09:22):
forgiven.
Now, I don't know about you, butit's important that we break
down the scripture verse so thatwe can understand what it
really, really means here.
I don't know about you.
But listen, I get busy, I getoverwhelmed and sometimes prayer
is a struggle.
And I have responsibilities, Ihave kids, I have bills to pay.
(09:46):
I have to work out regularly.
Why?
Because I like to eat whateverI like to eat, okay, I have to
work out regularly.
Why?
Because I like to eat whateverI like to eat, ok.
So I have many things going onin my life and trying to balance
all of those, thoseresponsibilities, is my human
responsibility can beoverwhelming at the point that I
(10:08):
forget to engage in prayer or Iforget how important it is to
pray, and when I think about howsome other cultures and even
religious groups, they shut downthe entire society for prayer.
You also see this in scripture.
I think it's in a book ofDaniel, right, even though the
(10:33):
king of Nebuchadnezzar wasasking Shadrach, meshach and
Abednego to worship a God I'mnot speaking in that term, not
that phase, but but some ofthese, even in Jewish cultures
and Islamic cultures, what dothey do they turn toward?
Every three times a day, theypray, and we see Daniel doing
(10:54):
the same thing, right.
Why?
Because they realize that theyare not in control of life and
even though we have our plansand that, even though we have
our plans and we have thingsthat we want to do, we say you
know, come now.
James 4.13,.
You know, come now, today andtomorrow we'll go to such a city
(11:15):
and we'll spend a year thereand engage in business and make
profit.
Yet you do not know.
Verse 14 says what your lifewill be like tomorrow.
You're here, one day you'regone.
The next Verse, 15, says weought.
If the lord wills, I will liveand do this or that.
And so when we talk about jamesmain text and we're talking
(11:40):
about here in james 5, 14, we'retalking about understanding how
we're not in control of ourlives, that when we talk about
the importance of prayer, thatwe're not just seeing it as
something we do or participatein when things are going or not
going our way, but it becomes adaily spiritual discipline.
What we do is we prepareourselves for the challenges
(12:04):
that we will face, and from thiswe gain spiritual power.
Here's a question for you to askCan you have a relationship
with God or can you not have arelationship with God if you
have a regular prayer ordiscipline?
Can you not have a relationshipwith God if you have a regular
(12:25):
prayer discipline?
Ok, now we're going to be busy,right.
So prioritizing relationshipwould be important.
We're going to have things thatdistract us.
We're too tired, we don't knowhow to pray or what to pray, we
don't know what to say.
We get distracted why?
Because we have a familyschedule.
(12:45):
We have club meetings, we gotmeetings to go to, we got to go
to the gym, we got to hang outwith friends, we got to do this
and we got to do that.
All of those things are valid.
All of those things are valid,but guess what?
They're never going to goanywhere.
As long as you and I are alive,we will have challenges, right?
So you and I can go through themundanity of life to grind and
(13:11):
then hope we get that phone call.
Someone died, or someone isterminally ill, or or someone's
in jail, or my parent now hasdementia, or now the doctor
called me and told me I need youto come in because we saw
something in your physical Right.
And what you realize at thispoint when that happens as it
(13:34):
happened for me back in 2023,when I had a heart scare, had a
heart scare, and I ended up inan emergency room and I was so
afraid I didn't want to tell myfamily, because I didn't want
them to be alarmed, but I wantedto get to the doctor, to the
emergency room.
Let them tell me, okay, this isgood or bad, and then I will
contact them.
(13:55):
Now that, I will be honest withyou, probably wasn't the best
use of my time, but I probablywas not the best thing to do the
way I did it.
But I was concerned.
But I realized, being in ahospital room, first and
foremost, that guess what?
The gym didn't matter, thepeople at work didn't matter as
(14:18):
much as far as in myresponsibilities, what I was,
you know, goals I was trying toaccomplish.
The only thing that mattered isam I going to get out of this
hospital?
Will I see my family again, youknow, is this the end?
And so what helped me to settlemy nerves?
Number one, it helped me torealize that life doesn't answer
(14:40):
to me.
Life does not answer to me.
And then, number two, Irealized that if, if it's the
Lord's will, I will keep goingforward, that if it's the Lord's
will, I will keep going forward.
If it's not, then I deal withit when it comes.
And I think that perspectivewas a direct result of my time
(15:03):
in prayer and realizing that I'mnot in control of life.
Okay, so when we look at James513, it says this I want to
break this down real quick.
It says this first, if there'sanyone in trouble, let them pray
.
So that means if you're in asad place or a happy place, you
(15:23):
should pray.
No matter where you are, nomatter how things are going,
prayer is still an importantpart of your life.
Spiritual discipline, right,the proximity of your proximity,
of your relationship with Godwould determine your ability to
be in gratitude or not when badthings happen.
(15:45):
He says if you are happy,saying Right.
Says if you are happy, singright.
So this verse underscores theimportance of praying not just
when things are bad, but alsowhen circumstances are all right
.
Whether you're in joy ordistress, you should be an
attitude of prayer, right.
So this idea it maintains, onceagain, having a relationship
(16:08):
with God that prepares you forall aspects of life, right.
So if there's anyone among you,the scripture says in James 5,
13, let them pray.
If anyone a month, you let themsick who are sick, let them
pray.
Right, if they have bad healthin good times, a bad time, let
them pray.
Then it says this number twowhen you pray, rely on God's
(16:31):
grace to help you through thecircumstance, right?
So in other words, you believein just as I did in the hospital
, that God's grace is sufficientif you make it out of it or you
don't make out of it.
If you make it out of thecircumstance or if things don't
go the way you want them to go.
(16:52):
Then it says sing songs, ifthere's anyone happy, sing.
Why?
Because singing is a sign ofgratitude.
God, I'm thankful for the lifethat I have now.
Even though things are not theway I prefer, I'm still grateful
for the life I have.
If not, I'm grateful for theexperiences I've had up to this
point right.
(17:23):
Then it says uh, if, if you are, you know, uh, uh, singing with
gratitude.
That's one thing you can do.
But it also says call for theelders of the church anointing
them with oil or as a symbol ofthe holy spirit.
Some people are arguing say thatis that also was a symbol of an
ancient ritual for a medicineor or ancient uh formula for
providing physical healing.
However you take that, I'm kindof 50 50 with that.
(17:45):
I read some of my commentariesand kind of saying the same
thing depends on what theologianyou're listening to or what
bible scholar you're listeningto.
But it does suggest this thatwhen we need healing, healing is
both a spiritual and a physicalprocess.
Right, if you're being healedin your body because of a
(18:06):
sickness, right, there's ahealing that's needed there and
medical aid can help with that.
Right, if you have a mentaldisposition, in other words,
struggle with mental health,there are therapists and
counselors who can help you withthat.
So you can pray.
Right, but you also need peopleto help you with that.
(18:27):
And I always, as a pastor and aleader, you know people will
come down Sunday morning and askfor prayer, and sometimes
they'd come every Sunday, and Ithought every Sunday.
Then I realized you know, someof you actually have mental
health issues.
You're coming to the wrongperson.
It doesn't mean you stoppraying, right, but you know
(18:49):
that there are people who havemental health issues.
They need to go to therapy, andit's no different from having a
physical ailment or or uh or uhdisformity.
Right, if you were diagnosedwith cancer, yes, you should
come down and ask for prayer and, yes, we should anoint you for
prayer.
(19:09):
But guess what?
You also need to go get chemotreatment.
Man, and that reminded me of afriend that I had, more
treatment man, and that remindedme of a friend that I had it's
a personal story he had cancerin his arm and I remember
telling him and I visited him inthe hospital.
I said, hey, why don't you justget it cut off?
He said, no, I believe God'sgoing to heal me.
I said, brother, I don'tunderstand that.
(19:30):
He said, no, I believe God'sgoing to heal me.
And I said, part, but if theycan save your body, save your
life and save and you can livelong you hadn't been married
that long to your new wife Justget it cut off, brother, you can
get a prosthesis, it doesn'tmatter Guess what guys.
He died in his early 30sbecause he said he didn't
(19:56):
believe.
He said if God wasn't healingme, then it wasn't God's will,
and that's something we can talkabout in the next episode.
So, speaking of next episode, atthe top of the description
there's something called fanmail.
If you click that link, you canclick it on your cell phone.
If you look at the podcastdescription in Apple or Spotify,
right at the top there's a linkthat says fan mail.
(20:18):
Click that link and if you havethat kind of issue, or if you
know someone who thinks that way, I want to hear from you.
This is a conversation that youliked us to cover on our next
podcast.
I love to talk about that.
Ok, then the last couple moreof them will finish up here.
It says prayer to prayer, faithbelieving, believing god's grace
.
So you believe in faith.
(20:39):
But then here's the last thingthat's important is community
says call for the elders of thechurch.
This is a sign of community,meaning that one of the reasons
why healing can take place incommunity is because you allow
other people into your life andpersonal space to help you.
What the devil would typicallydo is isolate you, and what that
(21:02):
isolation does.
I'm sick because I didn't prayenough.
Or I'm sick because I did thewrong I didn't eat right,
although those are importantthings to consider, things to
consider right.
But when a person becomesisolated that they believe,
(21:25):
right, that they are the problem, that they could have solved
this problem and they don't wantanybody to know about it, right
?
That's not the way it happens.
Calling for the elders of thechurch is letting the community
participate in the healingprocess, right?
So that's what James does.
Once again, this is saying thatwe believe that, even though we
got all these things going onRight here's my closing thoughts
(21:46):
Even though we have all ofthese things going on, right,
you got the political seasonhappening and people hitching
their wagon to this politicalparty or that political party.
This is something we even arguewith in my uh, not my immediate
family, but my extended familymembers.
We're all over the map aboutthis kind of thing.
Even though we have that goingon, no, and even though we have
(22:10):
a physical struggles going on wehave some of us that have
mental health struggles, some ofus us have physical health
struggles that there is a Godthat can watch this, invade our
very human everydaycircumstances, situation and
bring resolution.
So what do we learn today?
What prayer does is positions usso that we are ready.
(22:34):
So that we are ready doesn'tmean that we're still not going
to be shocked or disappointed orsad, but we're ready to handle.
When you get that phone call,god, I thank you for the
experiences I've had to thispoint, or I'm going to walk
through this.
If you have a friend that hascancer, you're going to walk
(22:56):
with them through that process.
We believe that there is a godwho can invade our very.
The supernatural can invade ournatural and help us to get
through.
That's what we've learned.
So, no matter what the what'sgoing on in the world today, we
still believe that there is aGod that can help us in our
(23:16):
circumstance.
So, my friends, thank you for somuch for listening.
Please make sure you subscribeand share this episode with
someone who could benefit fromit, and I'll see you.
I look forward to seeing younext time as we continue with
the Words for Change podcast andcommunity.
Thank you so much With theWords for Change podcast and
community.
Thank you so much.
And remember this right IfGod's going to heal us, if God's
(23:43):
going to heal us throughcommunity, then how important is
community to your spiritualgrowth and development?
Let that question linger withyou and don't forget to send me
a fan mail with the link up top.
I'll see you in the nextepisode.
Thanks for watching.
Well, hello.
Words for Change podcast.
This is Lionel.
Hey, welcome here on this TacoTuesday day, man.
It is September.
The month of September isactually my birthday month.
So, boy, I am super excitedabout aging.
No, I'm not.
It's September 3rd and this isWords for Change podcast.
(00:22):
This is Lionel, here on thisTaco Tuesday man.
Famous quote that's going tohelp us with our topic today the
greatest trick the devil everpulled was convincing the world
he didn't exist.
The famous quote comes fromAugustus of Hippo.
He said this pray as thougheverything depends on God.
Work as though everythingdepends on you.
(00:45):
This is a perfect definition, aperfect example of divine
intervention and humanresponsibility.
We'll talk about that more inthe segments ahead.
Good morning Vietnam.
What about the news?
What's happening in the news?
What's happening in the news?
Well, as you know, we are wellon our way to November
(01:09):
presidential election.
And speaking of the news,president Trump sorry, former
President Trump is stillstruggling to navigate this.
Reproductive rights it's stilla political issue that is in the
forefront, political issue thatis in the forefront.
Trump declared in a debate overreproductive rights and the
(01:33):
former president is still, youknow, straining on this new era
of Roe versus Wade politics andsort of taking a stance right.
A survey said that many peoplesomewhere between 55 percent of
voters think, uh, the vicepresident, harris, is better
equipped to tackle this issue ofreproductive health and, uh,
(01:55):
women's right to choose, so tospeak, compared to 30 percent of
trump supporters.
So this is sort of seven andten voters focus on abortion,
favor Harris over Trump.
So it's really interesting takehere of what's happening in our
society around this topic.
(02:16):
You know it's doing an electionyear, so all gloves are off.
Check this out y'all.
(02:41):
There is a bill to protectperformers from authorized AI
use.
This bill that heads toCalifornia governor.
A new bill to protectperformers from unauthorized AI
is now headed to the governor ofCalifornia, matt GPT, gemini
(03:03):
and some other very, very famousand growing.
Artificial intelligence theycan create replicas is a major
concern for the entertainmentindustry.
You will remember the Hollywoodstrikes not that long ago with
a major concern.
There was the likeness ofactors and their voices being
(03:24):
used to create movies, and sothe national proposal was
offered to protect, to offer AIprotection for those workers.
California Assembly Bill 2602would regulate the use of
generative AI for performers,not only those on screen in
films and TV and streamingservices, but also for those
(03:49):
using their voice and bodymovements in their likeness,
such as audio books and videogames.
I used to be a video game player.
The only video game I playedwas one, call of Duty, but the
other one I played was a collegefootball video game called NCAA
.
Well, they stopped producing Ithink it was I can't remember
(04:13):
the name of the company thatproduced that video game because
many of the players werecomplaining that the
universities were making weremaking substantial amount of
financial gain and benefit fromtheir likeness, but the players
(04:35):
weren't receiving any of thosebenefits.
And that became a conversation.
Because I don't know if you'veplayed sports, but outside of
season, so outside of footballseason, many of the players
didn't have adequate food totake care of themselves.
(04:55):
Season, right, uh, they mayhave had access to some of the
benefits, but doing uh duringseason, if their sport wasn't in
, they didn't have access tomany of those benefits.
Okay, so that became an issue.
So, um, the bill was passedy'all um in california and the
(05:23):
legislation was also supportedby uh a lot of unions.
Uh, duncan crabtree, ireland,points out that the bill had
bipartisan support and was notopposed to industry groups such
as motion picture association,which represents studios like
netflix, paramount pictures.
(05:47):
Once again, ai is on the rise,and I think it's something that
we have to at least keep oureyes on, if nothing else.
Now, what does that have to dowith our topic today?
(06:12):
Our topic is around the wholeconcept of prayer and why prayer
is important, not aftersomething bad happens, but
before it happens.
And she said that sometimeswhat we have a tendency to do is
(06:33):
that we want to sort of haveprayer snacks.
I never heard prayer mentionedin that way.
Prayer snacks instead of a fullmeals.
Like a relationship, arelationship that's full of
excitement, but we don't investthe time and energy necessary
(06:53):
for that relationship to have ameaning and have be robust in
that relationship, to beexciting, to be a part of Right.
(07:24):
Jesus always talks about thegospel, talks about how our
focus is not to be so on.
So much on the concept that we,even though we, live in a
physical world, but what our,our commitment to prayer says is
that we're also part of anotherkingdom, and so when we get
into this mode of praying right,what we're simply saying is
(07:47):
that there we believe in divineintervention, sort of what
Augustus talked about, talkedabout in our opening quote, that
we do believe that we havehuman responsibility, but we
also believe in divineintervention.
And so, even though thesethings are happening in the news
(08:09):
and this is a political season,and you know wherever you stand
on that we don't take aparticular stance here but
wherever you stand during thisseason, you have to remember
that your hope down into themundanity of what's happening in
(08:34):
our world and influence ourworld, influence people, right.
James, chapter five, verse 13,says this Right, when we talk,
think about prayer and that ifanyone in you that's in trouble,
let him pray.
If there's any of you who arecheerful, let him sing songs.
(08:57):
This is verse 14.
If there's any among you sick,let them call for the elders of
the church and let them prayover him or her, anointing them
with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer offered in
faith will restore the one whois sick and the Lord will raise
him or her up, and if he or shehas committed sins, they will be
(09:22):
forgiven.
Now, I don't know about you, butit's important that we break
down the scripture verse so thatwe can understand what it
really, really means here.
I don't know about you.
But listen, I get busy, I getoverwhelmed and sometimes prayer
is a struggle.
And I have responsibilities, Ihave kids, I have bills to pay.
(09:46):
I have to work out regularly.
Why?
Because I like to eat whateverI like to eat, okay, I have to
work out regularly.
Why?
Because I like to eat whateverI like to eat, ok.
So I have many things going onin my life and trying to balance
all of those, thoseresponsibilities, is my human
responsibility can beoverwhelming at the point that I
(10:08):
forget to engage in prayer or Iforget how important it is to
pray, and when I think about howsome other cultures and even
religious groups, they shut downthe entire society for prayer.
You also see this in scripture.
I think it's in a book ofDaniel, right, even though the
(10:33):
king of Nebuchadnezzar wasasking Shadrach, meshach and
Abednego to worship a God I'mnot speaking in that term, not
that phase, but but some ofthese, even in Jewish cultures
and Islamic cultures, what dothey do they turn toward?
Every three times a day, theypray, and we see Daniel doing
(10:54):
the same thing, right.
Why?
Because they realize that theyare not in control of life and
even though we have our plansand that, even though we have
our plans and we have thingsthat we want to do, we say you
know, come now.
James 4.13,.
You know, come now, today andtomorrow we'll go to such a city
(11:15):
and we'll spend a year thereand engage in business and make
profit.
Yet you do not know.
Verse 14 says what your lifewill be like tomorrow.
You're here, one day you'regone.
The next Verse, 15, says weought.
If the lord wills, I will liveand do this or that.
And so when we talk about jamesmain text and we're talking
(11:40):
about here in james 5, 14, we'retalking about understanding how
we're not in control of ourlives, that when we talk about
the importance of prayer, thatwe're not just seeing it as
something we do or participatein when things are going or not
going our way, but it becomes adaily spiritual discipline.
What we do is we prepareourselves for the challenges
(12:04):
that we will face, and from thiswe gain spiritual power.
Here's a question for you to askCan you have a relationship
with God or can you not have arelationship with God if you
have a regular prayer ordiscipline?
Can you not have a relationshipwith God if you have a regular
(12:25):
prayer discipline?
Ok, now we're going to be busy,right.
So prioritizing relationshipwould be important.
We're going to have things thatdistract us.
We're too tired, we don't knowhow to pray or what to pray, we
don't know what to say.
We get distracted why?
Because we have a familyschedule.
(12:45):
We have club meetings, we gotmeetings to go to, we got to go
to the gym, we got to hang outwith friends, we got to do this
and we got to do that.
All of those things are valid.
All of those things are valid,but guess what?
They're never going to goanywhere.
As long as you and I are alive,we will have challenges, right?
So you and I can go through themundanity of life to grind and
(13:11):
then hope we get that phone call.
Someone died, or someone isterminally ill, or or someone's
in jail, or my parent now hasdementia, or now the doctor
called me and told me I need youto come in because we saw
something in your physical Right.
And what you realize at thispoint when that happens as it
(13:34):
happened for me back in 2023,when I had a heart scare, had a
heart scare, and I ended up inan emergency room and I was so
afraid I didn't want to tell myfamily, because I didn't want
them to be alarmed, but I wantedto get to the doctor, to the
emergency room.
Let them tell me, okay, this isgood or bad, and then I will
contact them.
(13:55):
Now that, I will be honest withyou, probably wasn't the best
use of my time, but I probablywas not the best thing to do the
way I did it.
But I was concerned.
But I realized, being in ahospital room, first and
foremost, that guess what?
The gym didn't matter, thepeople at work didn't matter as
(14:18):
much as far as in myresponsibilities, what I was,
you know, goals I was trying toaccomplish.
The only thing that mattered isam I going to get out of this
hospital?
Will I see my family again, youknow, is this the end?
And so what helped me to settlemy nerves?
Number one, it helped me torealize that life doesn't answer
(14:40):
to me.
Life does not answer to me.
And then, number two, Irealized that if, if it's the
Lord's will, I will keep goingforward, that if it's the Lord's
will, I will keep going forward.
If it's not, then I deal withit when it comes.
And I think that perspectivewas a direct result of my time
(15:03):
in prayer and realizing that I'mnot in control of life.
Okay, so when we look at James513, it says this I want to
break this down real quick.
It says this first, if there'sanyone in trouble, let them pray
.
So that means if you're in asad place or a happy place, you
(15:23):
should pray.
No matter where you are, nomatter how things are going,
prayer is still an importantpart of your life.
Spiritual discipline, right,the proximity of your proximity,
of your relationship with Godwould determine your ability to
be in gratitude or not when badthings happen.
(15:45):
He says if you are happy,saying Right.
Says if you are happy, singright.
So this verse underscores theimportance of praying not just
when things are bad, but alsowhen circumstances are all right
.
Whether you're in joy ordistress, you should be an
attitude of prayer, right.
So this idea it maintains, onceagain, having a relationship
(16:08):
with God that prepares you forall aspects of life, right.
So if there's anyone among you,the scripture says in James 5,
13, let them pray.
If anyone a month, you let themsick who are sick, let them
pray.
Right, if they have bad healthin good times, a bad time, let
them pray.
Then it says this number twowhen you pray, rely on God's
(16:31):
grace to help you through thecircumstance, right?
So in other words, you believein just as I did in the hospital
, that God's grace is sufficientif you make it out of it or you
don't make out of it.
If you make it out of thecircumstance or if things don't
go the way you want them to go.
(16:52):
Then it says sing songs, ifthere's anyone happy, sing.
Why?
Because singing is a sign ofgratitude.
God, I'm thankful for the lifethat I have now.
Even though things are not theway I prefer, I'm still grateful
for the life I have.
If not, I'm grateful for theexperiences I've had up to this
point right.
(17:23):
Then it says uh, if, if you are, you know, uh, uh, singing with
gratitude.
That's one thing you can do.
But it also says call for theelders of the church anointing
them with oil or as a symbol ofthe holy spirit.
Some people are arguing say thatis that also was a symbol of an
ancient ritual for a medicineor or ancient uh formula for
providing physical healing.
However you take that, I'm kindof 50 50 with that.
(17:45):
I read some of my commentariesand kind of saying the same
thing depends on what theologianyou're listening to or what
bible scholar you're listeningto.
But it does suggest this thatwhen we need healing, healing is
both a spiritual and a physicalprocess.
Right, if you're being healedin your body because of a
(18:06):
sickness, right, there's ahealing that's needed there and
medical aid can help with that.
Right, if you have a mentaldisposition, in other words,
struggle with mental health,there are therapists and
counselors who can help you withthat.
So you can pray.
Right, but you also need peopleto help you with that.
(18:27):
And I always, as a pastor and aleader, you know people will
come down Sunday morning and askfor prayer, and sometimes
they'd come every Sunday, and Ithought every Sunday.
Then I realized you know, someof you actually have mental
health issues.
You're coming to the wrongperson.
It doesn't mean you stoppraying, right, but you know
(18:49):
that there are people who havemental health issues.
They need to go to therapy, andit's no different from having a
physical ailment or or uh or uhdisformity.
Right, if you were diagnosedwith cancer, yes, you should
come down and ask for prayer and, yes, we should anoint you for
prayer.
(19:09):
But guess what?
You also need to go get chemotreatment.
Man, and that reminded me of afriend that I had, more
treatment man, and that remindedme of a friend that I had it's
a personal story he had cancerin his arm and I remember
telling him and I visited him inthe hospital.
I said, hey, why don't you justget it cut off?
He said, no, I believe God'sgoing to heal me.
I said, brother, I don'tunderstand that.
(19:30):
He said, no, I believe God'sgoing to heal me.
And I said, part, but if theycan save your body, save your
life and save and you can livelong you hadn't been married
that long to your new wife Justget it cut off, brother, you can
get a prosthesis, it doesn'tmatter Guess what guys.
He died in his early 30sbecause he said he didn't
(19:56):
believe.
He said if God wasn't healingme, then it wasn't God's will,
and that's something we can talkabout in the next episode.
So, speaking of next episode, atthe top of the description
there's something called fanmail.
If you click that link, you canclick it on your cell phone.
If you look at the podcastdescription in Apple or Spotify,
right at the top there's a linkthat says fan mail.
(20:18):
Click that link and if you havethat kind of issue, or if you
know someone who thinks that way, I want to hear from you.
This is a conversation that youliked us to cover on our next
podcast.
I love to talk about that.
Ok, then the last couple moreof them will finish up here.
It says prayer to prayer, faithbelieving, believing god's grace
.
So you believe in faith.
(20:39):
But then here's the last thingthat's important is community
says call for the elders of thechurch.
This is a sign of community,meaning that one of the reasons
why healing can take place incommunity is because you allow
other people into your life andpersonal space to help you.
What the devil would typicallydo is isolate you, and what that
(21:02):
isolation does.
I'm sick because I didn't prayenough.
Or I'm sick because I did thewrong I didn't eat right,
although those are importantthings to consider, things to
consider right.
But when a person becomesisolated that they believe,
(21:25):
right, that they are the problem, that they could have solved
this problem and they don't wantanybody to know about it, right
?
That's not the way it happens.
Calling for the elders of thechurch is letting the community
participate in the healingprocess, right?
So that's what James does.
Once again, this is saying thatwe believe that, even though we
got all these things going onRight here's my closing thoughts
(21:46):
Even though we have all ofthese things going on, right,
you got the political seasonhappening and people hitching
their wagon to this politicalparty or that political party.
This is something we even arguewith in my uh, not my immediate
family, but my extended familymembers.
We're all over the map aboutthis kind of thing.
Even though we have that goingon, no, and even though we have
(22:10):
a physical struggles going on wehave some of us that have
mental health struggles, some ofus us have physical health
struggles that there is a Godthat can watch this, invade our
very human everydaycircumstances, situation and
bring resolution.
So what do we learn today?
What prayer does is positions usso that we are ready.
(22:34):
So that we are ready doesn'tmean that we're still not going
to be shocked or disappointed orsad, but we're ready to handle.
When you get that phone call,god, I thank you for the
experiences I've had to thispoint, or I'm going to walk
through this.
If you have a friend that hascancer, you're going to walk
(22:56):
with them through that process.
We believe that there is a godwho can invade our very.
The supernatural can invade ournatural and help us to get
through.
That's what we've learned.
So, no matter what the what'sgoing on in the world today, we
still believe that there is aGod that can help us in our
(23:16):
circumstance.
So, my friends, thank you for somuch for listening.
Please make sure you subscribeand share this episode with
someone who could benefit fromit, and I'll see you.
I look forward to seeing younext time as we continue with
the Words for Change podcast andcommunity.
Thank you so much With theWords for Change podcast and
community.
Thank you so much.
And remember this right IfGod's going to heal us, if God's
(23:43):
going to heal us throughcommunity, then how important is
community to your spiritualgrowth and development?
Let that question linger withyou and don't forget to send me
a fan mail with the link up top.
I'll see you in the nextepisode.
Thanks for watching.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com