Ep. 78 Pray Before Bad Things Happen #prayer #faith #resilience

Imagine navigating life's toughest challenges with the power of prayer as your guiding light. In this episode of Words for Change, join me, Lionel, as we break down the profound quote, "Pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you," illustrating how faith and action can coexist harmoniously. We'll unravel the ongoing political debate over reproductive rights, spotlighting the contrasting viewpoints of former President Trump and Vice President Harris, and delve into a crucial new California bill safeguarding performers from unauthorized AI exploitation. 

we dive deep into the biblical passage of James 5:13-15, exploring the profound lessons on prayer, faith, and healing. Whether you're seeking spiritual guidance or looking to deepen your understanding of scripture, this video will illuminate the powerful connection between prayer and healing as taught in the Bible.

📜 Key Themes Covered:

• The significance of prayer in times of suffering and joy
• The role of anointing with oil in spiritual and physical healing
• The "prayer of faith" and its implications for believers
• The communal aspect of healing within the early Christian church

✝️ Biblical Insights & Theological Analysis: We break down the text, drawing on recent scholarly research and historical context to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how these verses have shaped Christian practice and belief.

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Importance of Prayer in Life
• 12:59 Navigating Life's Challenges Through Prayer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, hello. Words for Change podcast. This is Lionel. Hey, welcome here on this Taco Tuesday day, man. It is September. The month of September is actually my birthday month. So, boy, I am super excited about aging. No, I'm not. It's September 3rd and this is Words for Change podcast. This is Lionel, here on this Taco Tuesday man.

Speaker 1: 0:25

Famous quote that's going to help us with our topic today the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. The famous quote comes from Augustus of Hippo. He said this pray as though everything depends on God. Work as though everything depends on you. This is a perfect definition, a perfect example of divine intervention and human responsibility. We'll talk about that more in the segments ahead. Good morning Vietnam.

Speaker 1: 1:02

What about the news? What's happening in the news? What's happening in the news? Well, as you know, we are well on our way to November presidential election. And speaking of the news, president Trump sorry, former President Trump is still struggling to navigate this. Reproductive rights it's still a political issue that is in the forefront, political issue that is in the forefront. Trump declared in a debate over reproductive rights and the former president is still, you know, straining on this new era of Roe versus Wade politics and sort of taking a stance right. A survey said that many people somewhere between 55 percent of voters think, uh, the vice president, harris, is better equipped to tackle this issue of reproductive health and, uh, women's right to choose, so to speak, compared to 30 percent of trump supporters. So this is sort of seven and ten voters focus on abortion, favor Harris over Trump. So it's really interesting take here of what's happening in our society around this topic. You know it's doing an election year, so all gloves are off. Check this out y'all.

Speaker 1: 2:41

There is a bill to protect performers from authorized AI use. This bill that heads to California governor. A new bill to protect performers from unauthorized AI is now headed to the governor of California, matt GPT, gemini and some other very, very famous and growing. Artificial intelligence they can create replicas is a major concern for the entertainment industry. You will remember the Hollywood strikes not that long ago with a major concern. There was the likeness of actors and their voices being used to create movies, and so the national proposal was offered to protect, to offer AI protection for those workers. California Assembly Bill 2602 would regulate the use of generative AI for performers, not only those on screen in films and TV and streaming services, but also for those using their voice and body movements in their likeness, such as audio books and video games.

Speaker 1: 3:57

I used to be a video game player. The only video game I played was one, call of Duty, but the other one I played was a college football video game called NCAA. Well, they stopped producing I think it was I can't remember the name of the company that produced that video game because many of the players were complaining that the universities were making were making substantial amount of financial gain and benefit from their likeness, but the players weren't receiving any of those benefits. And that became a conversation. Because I don't know if you've played sports, but outside of season, so outside of football season, many of the players didn't have adequate food to take care of themselves. Season, right, uh, they may have had access to some of the benefits, but doing uh during season, if their sport wasn't in, they didn't have access to many of those benefits. Okay, so that became an issue. So, um, the bill was passed y'all um in california and the legislation was also supported by uh a lot of unions. Uh, duncan crabtree, ireland, points out that the bill had bipartisan support and was not opposed to industry groups such as motion picture association, which represents studios like netflix, paramount pictures.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Once again, ai is on the rise, and I think it's something that we have to at least keep our eyes on, if nothing else. Now, what does that have to do with our topic today? Our topic is around the whole concept of prayer and why prayer is important, not after something bad happens, but before it happens. And she said that sometimes what we have a tendency to do is that we want to sort of have prayer snacks. I never heard prayer mentioned in that way. Prayer snacks instead of a full meals. Like a relationship, a relationship that's full of excitement, but we don't invest the time and energy necessary for that relationship to have a meaning and have be robust in that relationship, to be exciting, to be a part of Right.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Jesus always talks about the gospel, talks about how our focus is not to be so on. So much on the concept that we, even though we, live in a physical world, but what our, our commitment to prayer says is that we're also part of another kingdom, and so when we get into this mode of praying right, what we're simply saying is that there we believe in divine intervention, sort of what Augustus talked about, talked about in our opening quote, that we do believe that we have human responsibility, but we also believe in divine intervention. And so, even though these things are happening in the news and this is a political season, and you know wherever you stand on that we don't take a particular stance here but wherever you stand during this season, you have to remember that your hope down into the mundanity of what's happening in our world and influence our world, influence people, right. James, chapter five, verse 13, says this Right, when we talk, think about prayer and that if anyone in you that's in trouble, let him pray. If there's any of you who are cheerful, let him sing songs. This is verse 14. If there's any among you sick, let them call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him or her, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him or her up, and if he or she has committed sins, they will be forgiven.

Speaker 1: 9:23

Now, I don't know about you, but it's important that we break down the scripture verse so that we can understand what it really, really means here. I don't know about you. But listen, I get busy, I get overwhelmed and sometimes prayer is a struggle. And I have responsibilities, I have kids, I have bills to pay. I have to work out regularly. Why? Because I like to eat whatever I like to eat, okay, I have to work out regularly. Why? Because I like to eat whatever I like to eat, ok. So I have many things going on in my life and trying to balance all of those, those responsibilities, is my human responsibility can be overwhelming at the point that I forget to engage in prayer or I forget how important it is to pray, and when I think about how some other cultures and even religious groups, they shut down the entire society for prayer.

Speaker 1: 10:24

You also see this in scripture. I think it's in a book of Daniel, right, even though the king of Nebuchadnezzar was asking Shadrach, meshach and Abednego to worship a God I'm not speaking in that term, not that phase, but but some of these, even in Jewish cultures and Islamic cultures, what do they do they turn toward? Every three times a day, they pray, and we see Daniel doing the same thing, right. Why? Because they realize that they are not in control of life and even though we have our plans and that, even though we have our plans and we have things that we want to do, we say you know, come now.

Speaker 1: 11:10

James 4.13,. You know, come now, today and tomorrow we'll go to such a city and we'll spend a year there and engage in business and make profit. Yet you do not know. Verse 14 says what your life will be like tomorrow. You're here, one day you're gone. The next Verse, 15, says we ought. If the lord wills, I will live and do this or that. And so when we talk about james main text and we're talking about here in james 5, 14, we're talking about understanding how we're not in control of our lives, that when we talk about the importance of prayer, that we're not just seeing it as something we do or participate in when things are going or not going our way, but it becomes a daily spiritual discipline. What we do is we prepare ourselves for the challenges that we will face, and from this we gain spiritual power.

Speaker 1: 12:09

Here's a question for you to ask Can you have a relationship with God or can you not have a relationship with God if you have a regular prayer or discipline? Can you not have a relationship with God if you have a regular prayer discipline? Ok, now we're going to be busy, right. So prioritizing relationship would be important. We're going to have things that distract us. We're too tired, we don't know how to pray or what to pray, we don't know what to say. We get distracted why? Because we have a family schedule. We have club meetings, we got meetings to go to, we got to go to the gym, we got to hang out with friends, we got to do this and we got to do that. All of those things are valid. All of those things are valid, but guess what? They're never going to go anywhere.

Speaker 1: 12:59

As long as you and I are alive, we will have challenges, right? So you and I can go through the mundanity of life to grind and then hope we get that phone call. Someone died, or someone is terminally ill, or or someone's in jail, or my parent now has dementia, or now the doctor called me and told me I need you to come in because we saw something in your physical Right. And what you realize at this point when that happens as it happened for me back in 2023, when I had a heart scare, had a heart scare, and I ended up in an emergency room and I was so afraid I didn't want to tell my family, because I didn't want them to be alarmed, but I wanted to get to the doctor, to the emergency room. Let them tell me, okay, this is good or bad, and then I will contact them.

Speaker 1: 13:55

Now that, I will be honest with you, probably wasn't the best use of my time, but I probably was not the best thing to do the way I did it. But I was concerned. But I realized, being in a hospital room, first and foremost, that guess what? The gym didn't matter, the people at work didn't matter as much as far as in my responsibilities, what I was, you know, goals I was trying to accomplish. The only thing that mattered is am I going to get out of this hospital? Will I see my family again, you know, is this the end? And so what helped me to settle my nerves? Number one, it helped me to realize that life doesn't answer to me. Life does not answer to me. And then, number two, I realized that if, if it's the Lord's will, I will keep going forward, that if it's the Lord's will, I will keep going forward. If it's not, then I deal with it when it comes. And I think that perspective was a direct result of my time in prayer and realizing that I'm not in control of life.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Okay, so when we look at James 513, it says this I want to break this down real quick. It says this first, if there's anyone in trouble, let them pray. So that means if you're in a sad place or a happy place, you should pray. No matter where you are, no matter how things are going, prayer is still an important part of your life. Spiritual discipline, right, the proximity of your proximity, of your relationship with God would determine your ability to be in gratitude or not when bad things happen. He says if you are happy, saying Right. Says if you are happy, sing right.

Speaker 1: 15:49

So this verse underscores the importance of praying not just when things are bad, but also when circumstances are all right. Whether you're in joy or distress, you should be an attitude of prayer, right. So this idea it maintains, once again, having a relationship with God that prepares you for all aspects of life, right. So if there's anyone among you, the scripture says in James 5, 13, let them pray. If anyone a month, you let them sick who are sick, let them pray. Right, if they have bad health in good times, a bad time, let them pray. Then it says this number two when you pray, rely on God's grace to help you through the circumstance, right? So in other words, you believe in just as I did in the hospital, that God's grace is sufficient if you make it out of it or you don't make out of it. If you make it out of the circumstance or if things don't go the way you want them to go.

Speaker 1: 16:52

Then it says sing songs, if there's anyone happy, sing. Why? Because singing is a sign of gratitude. God, I'm thankful for the life that I have now. Even though things are not the way I prefer, I'm still grateful for the life I have. If not, I'm grateful for the experiences I've had up to this point right. Then it says uh, if, if you are, you know, uh, uh, singing with gratitude. That's one thing you can do. But it also says call for the elders of the church anointing them with oil or as a symbol of the holy spirit.

Speaker 1: 17:29

Some people are arguing say that is that also was a symbol of an ancient ritual for a medicine or or ancient uh formula for providing physical healing. However you take that, I'm kind of 50 50 with that. I read some of my commentaries and kind of saying the same thing depends on what theologian you're listening to or what bible scholar you're listening to. But it does suggest this that when we need healing, healing is both a spiritual and a physical process. Right, if you're being healed in your body because of a sickness, right, there's a healing that's needed there and medical aid can help with that. Right, if you have a mental disposition, in other words, struggle with mental health, there are therapists and counselors who can help you with that. So you can pray. Right, but you also need people to help you with that.

Speaker 1: 18:27

And I always, as a pastor and a leader, you know people will come down Sunday morning and ask for prayer, and sometimes they'd come every Sunday, and I thought every Sunday. Then I realized you know, some of you actually have mental health issues. You're coming to the wrong person. It doesn't mean you stop praying, right, but you know that there are people who have mental health issues. They need to go to therapy, and it's no different from having a physical ailment or or uh or uh disformity. Right, if you were diagnosed with cancer, yes, you should come down and ask for prayer and, yes, we should anoint you for prayer. But guess what? You also need to go get chemo treatment.

Speaker 1: 19:14

Man, and that reminded me of a friend that I had, more treatment man, and that reminded me of a friend that I had it's a personal story he had cancer in his arm and I remember telling him and I visited him in the hospital. I said, hey, why don't you just get it cut off? He said, no, I believe God's going to heal me. I said, brother, I don't understand that. He said, no, I believe God's going to heal me. And I said, part, but if they can save your body, save your life and save and you can live long you hadn't been married that long to your new wife Just get it cut off, brother, you can get a prosthesis, it doesn't matter Guess what guys. He died in his early 30s because he said he didn't believe. He said if God wasn't healing me, then it wasn't God's will, and that's something we can talk about in the next episode.

Speaker 1: 20:02

So, speaking of next episode, at the top of the description there's something called fan mail. If you click that link, you can click it on your cell phone. If you look at the podcast description in Apple or Spotify, right at the top there's a link that says fan mail. Click that link and if you have that kind of issue, or if you know someone who thinks that way, I want to hear from you. This is a conversation that you liked us to cover on our next podcast. I love to talk about that. Ok, then the last couple more of them will finish up here.

Speaker 1: 20:34

It says prayer to prayer, faith believing, believing god's grace. So you believe in faith. But then here's the last thing that's important is community says call for the elders of the church. This is a sign of community, meaning that one of the reasons why healing can take place in community is because you allow other people into your life and personal space to help you. What the devil would typically do is isolate you, and what that isolation does. I'm sick because I didn't pray enough. Or I'm sick because I did the wrong I didn't eat right, although those are important things to consider, things to consider right. But when a person becomes isolated that they believe, right, that they are the problem, that they could have solved this problem and they don't want anybody to know about it, right? That's not the way it happens. Calling for the elders of the church is letting the community participate in the healing process, right? So that's what James does.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Once again, this is saying that we believe that, even though we got all these things going on Right here's my closing thoughts Even though we have all of these things going on, right, you got the political season happening and people hitching their wagon to this political party or that political party. This is something we even argue with in my uh, not my immediate family, but my extended family members. We're all over the map about this kind of thing. Even though we have that going on, no, and even though we have a physical struggles going on we have some of us that have mental health struggles, some of us us have physical health struggles that there is a God that can watch this, invade our very human everyday circumstances, situation and bring resolution. So what do we learn today?

Speaker 1: 22:29

What prayer does is positions us so that we are ready. So that we are ready doesn't mean that we're still not going to be shocked or disappointed or sad, but we're ready to handle. When you get that phone call, god, I thank you for the experiences I've had to this point, or I'm going to walk through this. If you have a friend that has cancer, you're going to walk with them through that process. We believe that there is a god who can invade our very. The supernatural can invade our natural and help us to get through. That's what we've learned. So, no matter what the what's going on in the world today, we still believe that there is a God that can help us in our circumstance.

Speaker 1: 23:17

So, my friends, thank you for so much for listening. Please make sure you subscribe and share this episode with someone who could benefit from it, and I'll see you. I look forward to seeing you next time as we continue with the Words for Change podcast and community. Thank you so much With the Words for Change podcast and community. Thank you so much. And remember this right If God's going to heal us, if God's going to heal us through community, then how important is community to your spiritual growth and development? Let that question linger with you and don't forget to send me a fan mail with the link up top. I'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for watching.