James has been saying, in the midst of pain and suffering, put your faith into action. Now he says, put knees to your faith. When you are in trouble, pray. When you are cheerful, sing praises. When you are sick, you might want to call for the elders. When you live in authentic Christian community, you experience the healing power of grace in all its fullness.

READ James 5:13

James is writing to scattered, persecuted Jewish believers who have put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah. He’s encouraging them to put their faith into action in the midst of any and every trial they face. And essentially, in this passage, James is saying, “Put feet to your faith by putting knees to your faith.” Clearly, this passage is about prayer. The first kind of prayer is:

• Personal Prayer (5:13) — “When you are in trouble, pray. So, what do we pray for when we’re in trouble? We can pray for relief. We can pray for God to remove the trouble. But we can and should pray for wisdom (cf1:5). We are to ask God to give us the wisdom we need to be patient and to endure the trial so that we grow in our faith—so that we grow to be more like Jesus. Now, when you pray for relief and relief doesn’t come, ask God for wisdom and pray for God to do whatever He needs to do in you to make you more like Jesus. He goes on to say, “When you are cheerful, sing praises.” Sing praise to God when you see Him working in your life—either answering your prayers for relief or answering your prayers by giving you wisdom and patient endurance in the midst of hard times.

James says to us: “In the midst of pain and suffering—when things don’t go like you had hoped—when you are treated unfairly—when you’re hurting, and you are tempted to doubt God’s goodness—put feet to your faith by putting knees to your faith—SO—When you are in trouble, pray. We'll look at two more kinds of prayers in the next couple of devotions.