#DailyDevotion What Are You Doing With Your Mouth Today?
James 5:12-20 12 Above all things, my fellow Christians, don’t swear by heaven or by the earth or any other oath, but let your “yes” be just “yes” and your “no” be “no”, so that you will not be condemned. 13Is anyone of you suffering? Pray! Are you happy? Sing a song of praise! 14Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray, anointing him with olive oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will restore the sick person, and the Lord will heal him. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another to be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much. 17 Elijah was a man just like us, and he prayed earnestly that there should be no rain, and no rain fell on the ground for three years and six months. 18Then he prayed again, and heaven sent rain, and the ground produced its crops. . 19My fellow Christians, if one of you wanders away from the truth and someone brings him back, 20you should know that whoever brings a sinner back from his wrong way will save his soul from death and cover many sins.
James speaks to how we use our mouths this morning. First he recalls Jesus’ teaching on taking oaths or swearing. This is not a complete banning on oaths. Jesus took an oath and Paul made a vow. Oaths should be taken to uphold the truth and to preserve property and life. But far too many people swear this and that on things that really don’t matter. Your word should be your bond and be good enough. If you say yes to something carry through with it and if you say no, then don’t.
Our mouths with speak only by the grace of Go should pray and sing praises to our God. If we are suffering bring it to God. The Israelites prayed for relief from Pharaoh and God delivered them. The woman who had a demon possessed child petitioned Jesus and he cast the demon out. When we are sick we should ask others to pray for us as well, particularly the pastors of Christ’s church. James says the prayer offered in faith will make the sick man well and if he has any sins, he will be forgiven. The bringing in the forgiveness of sins here makes me think the healing James is referring to is the healing of the soul. We often think when we are sick God is angry with us and we must have done something wrong to have this happen to us. This prayer assures us God our Father still loves and forgives us and will raise us up on the Last Day to live eternally with him.
Our mouths should be used to confess our sins to one another. First we confess to those we sin against. We also should confess our sins to a trusted friend so we may hear from them the assurance of Christ’s forgiveness. Finally we confess those sins to our pastor so we may hear from him as from God himself our sins are forgiven. In this way we do not give a devil a foothold in our lives. We do not let our sins overcome us. In the forgiveness of sins we have a healing of the mind, soul and spirit and ultimate restoration of the body at the resurrection.
Finally we are called to call people back to the faith. We we do so we save that person’s soul and and cover all their sins. We admonish them to repent and when they do we speak to them the good news of the free gift of the forgiveness of sins.
Heavenly Father, grant that we use our mouths for the purpose you have given them, to pray, pray for others, speak forgiveness of sins and to praise your holy name through Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.