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Welcome to Day 2131 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom James – Wisdom is Faith in Action 13– Patience Through Prayer – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church message – 01/09/2022 James: Wisdom is Faith In Action – Patience Through Prayer We are continuing our series today on the Proverbs of the New Testament, better known as the letter of James. Last week we continued in James 5 and focused on verses 7-12. This message is titled, Patience in Suffering. This week we will study James 5:13-18, so join me on page 1885 in the pew bibles as I read the Scripture for today. I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: James 5:13-18  Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.  Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.     Like a car without fuel, life without prayer grinds to a halt. The prayer-starved Christian fails to shine like a lamp without electricity in a dark, desperate world. (Unplug Lamp) But show me a man or woman of prevailing prayer, and I’ll show you a man or woman whose faith is deep. Ernest, fervent prayer moves the heart of the omnipotent God of the universe. Yet far too many Christians fill their lives with dizzying activities, leaving no time for this crucial ingredient that can transform mere human actions into divine acts of power.   From the introduction to James’s letter, you may recall that James was well-known for his prayer life. He had the nickname “Camel Knees” because he spent so much time on his knees in prayer that they resembled the calloused knees of a camel. As one would expect from a book written by a man famed for prayer, the theme comes up repeatedly in the letter. In 1:5, James wrote, If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.  And in 4:2, he said, Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. Now, at the climax of his letter, James develops the theme of prayer more fully.   Here in 5:13-18, James continues to develop the idea of how we are to conduct ourselves with patience as we await the Lord’s return: true faith exhibited through patience, manifests itself in prayer. In the face of every obstacle, whether sickness or sin, the correct response is prayer. Prayer reflects an attitude of genuine faith and reveals patient endurance as we rely on God to handle life’s struggles in His timing and according to His promises. As such, prayer becomes an essential mark of authentic faith.   James refers to two ends on the spectrum of...