A few weeks ago I posted a picture of these three notebooks…
These notebook are filled with over 100 scriptures that tell us of God’s healing power, and it took me a little over a year to complete. Using Blue Letter Bible, Bible Gateway, and Webster’s 1828, I took a deeper look into what the key words of the passage meant. Sometimes, we may think we know what a word means, like Vizzini in The Princess Bride, when in reality, we are way off base…
Working on this word study, I thought my eyes were the only eyes that would see it…I was wrong. At church the following Sunday, some friends at church were sharing a diagnosis with Brett and me. As soon as they told us what was happening, I knew the Lord was speaking to me about giving them my journals. Have you ever heard the Lord speak to you about giving someone your own personal journal? It is a very vulnerable moment. Why? I didn’t just write what the words of the verse meant in Greek, Hebrew, or Webster’s 1828; I wrote out what it was saying to me at that moment. Vulnerable! The moment I saw this couple the following Sunday, they shared how they were using them and how grateful they were for them…and they were even able to follow my rabbit trails! With all that said, I thought I would move into a different word study…wrong again! I tried to start a different word study but kept returning to healing. I knew I was to start again. In the last study, I focused only on the cross-reference that pertained to healing; this time, it feels like I’m to focus on all the cross-references…I’m pretty sure it will take longer than a year this time!
James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray FOR (emphasis added) one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
NKJV
We will be focusing on the first part of this verse: confess your trespasses to one another, and pray FOR (emphasis added) one another, that you may be healed.
Strongs: confess G1843 exomologeō: to confess. Websters 1828: confess: to own or acknowledge. Own: in general, to acknowledge; to confess; to avow; to admit to be true; not to deny; as, to own our weakness and frailty.
Strongs: your sins G266 hamartia: that which is done wrong, sin, an offense, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act.
Strongs: to one another G240 allēlōn: one another, reciprocally, mutually. Websters: mutually: in the manner of giving and receiving.
Let’s stop and clarify who we are confessing to. We are not confessing to our hundreds of Facebook, Instagram, X, or any other social media platform you can think of. We are not confessing to the person we know will share our confession as a “prayer request,” (please don’t be that person!) We are confessing to the people who are actually in our lives, those we do life with: spouse, trusted friend, small group, etc. This is a two-way street, we do it for one another. We confess to the people we know will take the next part of the verse seriously.
Strongs: and G2532 kai: and, also, even, indeed. Websters: and: is a conjunction, connective or conjoining word. It signifies that a word or part of a sentence is to be added to what precedes.
Strongs: pray G2172 euchomai: to pray to God. Websters: pray: to supplicate; to entreat; to urge. Supplicate: to entreat for; to seek by earnest prayer. Entreat: to make an earnest petition or request.
Strongs: for G5228 hyper: in behalf of, for the sake of. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon: for, i.e. for one’s safety, for one’s advantage or benefit (one who does a thing for another, is conceived of as standing or bending ‘over’ the one he would shield or defend).
Normally, because I know what the words mean, I ignore the little words like and, as, in, for, etc., but on this particular day, I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit to look a little deeper into the word for. When I read that for is conceived as standing or bending ‘over’ the one he would shield or defend, I was stopped in my tracks. Do we realize when we pray for one another, it’s like we are forming a shield of protection around them? When we pray for one another, we are using our shield to cover them. I picture it like this…
You can watch the entire clip, but my focus is on what happens between the beginning of the clip and the 1:46 mark. “Whatever comes out of these gates, we’ve got a better chance of survival if we work together.” As you will notice in the clip, those who panicked and separated themselves from the group, were quickly picked off. They had no protection from the enemy that was coming out of the gate. Sound familiar?
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
ESV
They needed one another to survive the arena. We need one another to survive the arena of life! Jesus, the Son of God, shared his joys, frustrations, and sorrows with twelve men. If Jesus, the Son of God, shared his life with people, what makes us think “all we need is Jesus” and nobody else?” Hear me…Jesus is our all in all. He should be the person we call on first. But! I firmly believe that Jesus knows we need others in our life to form a shield of prayer around us when life gets too much, we’re making dumb decisions, we’re facing a sickness, or any other reason you can think of.
Why are we confessing and praying for one another? Healing!
Strongs: that (so that) G3704 opōs: how, that. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon: Used after verbs praying, entreating, asking, exhorting, to denote what one wishes to be done.
Strongs: you may be healed G2390 iaomai: 1. to cure, heal. 2. to make whole. a. to free from errors and sins, to bring about (one’s) salvation.
I don’t know about you, but I want everyone in my life to be healed! Healed from whatever would hold them back from receiving God’s best for them. I want my prayer to form a shield of protection around them so that the enemy does not devour them. And! I want others to do the same for me! But guess what? In order for that to happen, we have to go back to the beginniing of the verse and remember that it says to confess to one another. Tell others what we’re struggling with and allow them the opportunity to pray.
Wendy Roseman 