Like Elijah

I've come to love James' letter over the last couple of months. We've just finished fourteen weeks going through it in Teen Church at Trinity. It's part Sermon on the Mount, part Amos, part Isaiah, all Jesus. I suppose, since it's in the Bible, it would be. It's a letter that gets in your face and forces you to deal with things you'd rather not, it's a book to challenge, and to encourage.

Near the end of the letter, written to struggling, dispersed, Christians, James makes a startling comparison. An encouraging comparison. A provocative comparison. In his conclusion, as he challenges his readers to examine their faith, their prayers and their community involvement, he tells us in 5:17 that 'Elijah was a man with a nature like yours.'

Excuse me?

'Elijah was a man with a nature like yours.' In terms of provocation, and encouragement and startling the kids in the back row awake, he couldn't have chosen much better. Elijah was a man just like you. There is power in your faith, power in your prayers, just like there was for Elijah. He prayed that it wouldn't rain, and for forty months it didn't, and then he prayed that it would rain, and it did.

'Elijah was  man with a nature like yours.'  Elijah who fed the hungry and healed the sick and raised the dead. Elijah who faced down the prophets of Baal, Elijah, to whom and through whom God worked wonderful things. James doesn't tell us that 'a king who you can barely remember' had a nature like ours, or 'that minor prophet whose book you skip ober,' had a nature like yours. He says Elijah.

So stop wishing that you had faith like that man, and realise that through and in Christ you have something better. Your nature is just like his, and he longed to know what you. Stop assuming your prayers bounce off the ceiling, and pray in faith, knowing that Christ's name is the signature on your dirty cheque, and God is listening. Struggling, dispersed Christian; stop doubting the power of your prayers, and pray with faith.

Be encouraged, Elijah...Elijah! was a man with a nature like yours!