“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.” – James 5:14-16

This passage always reminds me of my Mom and her incredible faith, and there’s a story I need to tell you that’s not just about healing, it’s about our obedience and God’s promises.

Most of you know that my Mom battled a rare form of breast cancer for 22 years before she died, and the doctors all said she was a miracle. There was more than once that they told her to get her things in order, because she only had a few more months, and somehow those months would turn into years every time.

Where James 5 comes in is around 2004-ish, I was a junior high teacher in Holly Springs, and my parents were living in Ohio. I knew Mom hadn’t been feeling great, but she hadn’t told us how serious it was. She was great at not telling us when it was super-serious.

But this time they had told her she had 6 months to live. She just didn’t want us to worry.

I was at church at First Presbyterian Church of Holly Springs when the pastor spoke on these verses. Inspired, I called Mom as soon as I got out of church. The call went to voicemail, so I left her an excited and detailed message about how she needed to go get the elders to lay hands on her and pray over her.

She didn’t call back that day, which didn’t really ping my radar. The next day after school I was overseeing cheerleader practice and Mom called.

“Are you sitting down?” she said. I told her where I was, and I walked outside to get out of the noisy gym.

She told me she didn’t get my message until that morning because she hadn’t seen it, because after church she had felt led to go to the elders and they had prayed over her. But she hadn’t heard my voicemail.

“After my scans when the doctor walked in, he had my file in his hand,” she told me. “He said if he wasn’t holding my file and had just looked at today’s tests, he would swear I’d never had cancer.”

Overnight.

Yes, a few years later she relapsed, and that would be her last battle eventually (after years and years, because God needed us to understand a lot more about faith), but in that miracle healing that day, He showed us His mercy, His glory, His faithfulness and love. He showed us that His promises are true.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so you may be healed, He tells us. It’s the humbling ourselves before God, and the living acts of faith in Him that open us up for healing of all kinds. Mental, emotional, physical, financial, relational… it’s all about humbling, repenting, and having faith.

“Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has made you well,'” Jesus said to the last of the 10 lepers in Luke 17.

Your faith makes you well. Then He makes you whole. ❤️