The Spirit of Prayer
James 5:15, 16
What is it to "pray in faith"? One, it is to pray believing God is able. Secondly, it is to pray submitting and acknowledging that God alone is able. Thirdly, it is to actually ask the Lord. Fourthly, it is to confess our need of forgiveness. (Matthew Henry said, "When you are sick and in pain, it is most common to pray and cry, "O give me ease! O restore me to health!" But your prayer should rather and chiefly be, "O that God would pardon my sins!") Fifthly, the prayer of faith is to pray believing the Lord shall heal and shall forgive. If it is sickness of spirit then the Lord shall cause his chastening hand to yield the fruit of righteousness in his children; if it is bodily disease the Lord shall heal his saints either physically for a time or by making them altogether whole in glory. The prayer of faith submits and rejoices in the Lord to do what pleases him.