The Prayer of Faith in the Hospital Room
Primary Scripture: James 5:14-16; Psalm 50:15 “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up… Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” The hospital room is one of the most important prayer closets a believer will ever enter. It is also one of the easiest places to neglect prayer. Pain, medication, interruptions, and sheer exhaustion can silence the lips and dull the mind. Yet James does not present prayer for the sick as optional or secondary. He commands the sick believer to call for the elders. The initiative belongs first to the one who is ill. Anointing with oil is not a sacrament that automatically produces healing, nor is it an empty ritual. It is a tangible expression of...