One of the most confusing things that Christians deal with is the whole matter of prayer and healing. My grandmother got breast cancer, people prayed for her, she had surgery and follow-up radiation treatments, and she was healed. The cancer never came back, and she died of old age. My mother got breast cancer, people prayed for her, she had surgery and follow-up treatments, the cancer came back several times, and she died of cancer. Why? What happened? Why is one person prayed for and they are healed, and another person prayed for, and they’re not? The unsettling, maddening reality of divine healing is this—sometimes God heals, sometimes He does not, and He never bothers to tell us why.

READ James 5:16

The third kind of prayer mentioned in this passage is:

• Community Prayer (5:16) — When you put your faith into action in authentic community, you will experience the healing power of grace in all its fullness. Praying with two or three people who you are close with—two or three people who will seek God’s will with you regarding the troubles in which you find yourself—two or three people you trust enough to share your struggles with—James says praying with those kinds of friends is powerfully effective. That’s why I said earlier, “You may not want to call the elders'' because all you really need, might just be a small group of close friends to pray with you and for you.

When you live in authentic Christian community with a small group of people you trust and who trust you—you will experience God’s grace and healing in very real, tangible, powerful ways.