Tony Evans - How to Pray When You're Too Weary
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Summary
The preacher emphasizes constant communication with God in every moment: pray when suffering, praise when cheerful. Key passage is James 5:13–14, where James instructs the suffering to pray, the cheerful to sing praises, and the weary to call the elders for prayer. The core message is that life’s pain and joy both invite ongoing connection with God, and when exhaustion hits, the church community steps in to pray and carry you through.
Communicate with God in Every Season
If you’re in pain, talk to God. If you’re not in pain, praise God. This means that you should always communicate with God because you’re either in pain or in praise. God wants to hear from you all day, non-stop, ongoingly, in every aspect of our lives, whether we’re hurting or not. We’re talking about something serious—drawing heaven into history. So let’s break down this passage, and by the end, I hope you will have been ignited with a new fire regarding prayer and its power to take the kingdom of heaven and invade the kingdom of earth through the mechanism of prayer.
When You Are Suffering
Verse 13: Is anyone among you suffering? Suffering means going through a difficult period, and it indicates that you are hurting. Something is hurting you; it could be physical hurt, financial hurt, circumstantial hurt, or relational hurt. All you know is that you’re in pain; you are suffering. So just to make sure I’m not wasting my time, let me ask you what James asked his audience: Is anybody here this morning suffering? Let me raise your hand if you’re suffering. All right, good. I want to ensure that we can apply this to everyone who raised their hands, for those who were lying and didn’t raise their hands, and for those who will need to raise their hand tomorrow, even though they may not need to raise it today. Is anyone among you suffering? Are you going through a rough patch in life? He says, «Notice this: you must pray.»
Now, he should pray—not that it would be nice if he did pray. He says you better pray if life has fallen on you. Many of these Christians were being persecuted; many were going through trials that were difficult to handle, and they were hurting. James says that if you are hurting because of circumstances, you must pray. Pain is always an invitation to prayer. Pain, in whatever form it takes, is always an invitation to pray. You say, «Well, I’m hurting all the time.» That means you should be praying all the time because pain is an invitation to pray. In fact, one of the reasons God lets pain linger is to get more prayer from us. We can actually lengthen the time of pain or shorten the time of pain by lengthening prayer time and not shortening prayer time.
If anyone is hurting, he must make contact with heaven in the midst of the pain; he must pray.
When You Are Cheerful
He goes on in verse 13: «Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises.» Now, we’re not talking about the person in pain. We’re talking about all those folks that didn’t raise their hands. That should mean you’re cheerful; it’s a good day, and you’re happy today. You’re not in any excruciating difficulty right now. He says, «Well, if your day is going well and you’re cheerful, let him sing praises.»
Praise is an expression of value to the Lord; it is honoring the Lord physically and verbally. There’s no such thing as silent praise. You can have silent worship, but you can’t have silent praise. Praise is always visual and vocal. That’s why he says to sing praises to the Lord. Wait a minute, let’s rewind: If you’re in pain, pray. If you’re not in pain, you’re not sad, but you’re glad—praise.
Well, hold it; you’re either one or the other. You’re either in pain or you’re cheerful. If you’re in pain, talk to God. If you’re not in pain, praise God. This means that you’re always communicating with God because you’re either in pain or in praise. God wants to hear from you all day, non-stop, as a way of life. He wants you to thread Him into every aspect of your day, either in prayer or in praise. Because you’re either in pain or you’re in praise, that means you have a 24/7 relationship going on with God. That’s why you can’t get mad at your grandmother when she’s walking around saying, «Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord,» because God wants a connection ongoingly in every aspect of our lives, whether we’re hurting or not.
When You Are Weary
Verse 14: He says, «Is anyone among you sick?» The Greek word for sick means to be weary. The idea of sickness here is not merely physical. It could be physical, but the word refers to its effect—it’s created weariness. It’s like when you say, «I’m sick and tired,» or when you look at the person next to you and say, «I’m sick of you.» That’s a form of sickness; it means you are tired of them. «I’m sick of this job,» you know, «I’m sick of this circumstance.» You’re expressing weariness, but you’re using the word sick. You may not mean you’re physically sick; it means you’re tired of dealing with the situation.
The concept of sick, which could be physical, emotional, or circumstantial, has to do with being beat down, broke down, tore up from the floor up because of the weight of life. You’re just tired. You’ve been going through this for so long, struggling with it; you are just weary and sick and tired. Let me make sure I’m being relevant here. Is anybody weary? All right, I just want to be sure we are relevant.
He’s speaking now to the sufferer—that’s the person going through pain. But this is the weary one—the one who, because of what may be suffering, is not sure they can go on any further and is considering throwing in the towel. What happens when you get weary, no matter what’s caused the weariness? Then let him call on the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him. In verse 13, you are praying for yourself: «Anyone suffering, let him pray.» But in verse 14, you need help because your prayers are not getting through. In fact, you don’t even feel like praying anymore.
When life beats you down long enough and deep enough, you can get tired of dealing with God. Now, that doesn’t sound spiritual, but all of you know that’s true. Sometimes, you don’t feel like talking to God; He seems absent from you. The telephone line is off the hook and busy; you’re not breaking through. You’re just mumbling the same words over and over again, and you feel like you’re talking to yourself. He says, «Okay, now at that point, when you hit weary, you need more than just yourself.»
So he says to go to the elders of the church, who represent the spiritual leadership of the church, to get support for a breakthrough you have not been able to achieve on your own. Every Sunday morning before each of the services, the elders meet, and on a regular basis, we are praying for members who have called to speak about their situation, their weariness, or their suffering. We schedule them for a time of prayer before the service that they will attend. We had a prayer today from a sister who’s here this morning, and the one word that was used in our time of prayer was «I’m tired.»
That’s this word—that’s the situation. Nothing is happening, God hasn’t changed anything yet, and I’m just tired. «Will you pray for me?» This is when people want to give up, throw in the towel. That means you need some other folks who can cry out for you because you are too tired to cry out for yourself. He says you should call the elders of the church and let them pray, because you may not be able to. That’s why you should be a part of a local church, so that when you can’t go on, somebody else can help you keep going.
Prayer
Lord, thank You for reminding us that we are never meant to walk alone. When we’re hurting, teach us to pray. When we’re joyful, teach us to praise. And when we’re too weary to do either, surround us with brothers and sisters who will carry us to You. Strengthen us through community and never let us give up. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Power of Community
You shouldn’t be a Lone Ranger Christian. There must be spiritual people since they represent the church—people who can carry you when you can’t carry yourself. This reminds me of the story in Mark 2:1-12. You have a lame man, a paralyzed man who can’t get up. He has been lying there for a long time and can’t get up, but he has four friends. They picked him up and took him to the house where Jesus was; they cut a hole in the roof and let him down in front of Jesus.
When Jesus saw their faith—not the man’s faith, as he was lying down—when He saw his friends' faith, He healed the man. The man couldn’t get up on his own, but he had people in his life who cared enough about him to reach over, pick him up, lift him up, carry him to Jesus, and drop him down. When Jesus saw the four men, He said, «I’m going to heal you for their sake because you can’t get up on your own.»
I wish I could tell you this morning that if you are a committed Christian, you won’t get tired. Oh, but some of God’s most committed Christians are tired Christians. Paul said he was ready to give up on life in 2 Corinthians 1. He was ready to throw in the towel until God lifted him up. Just believing in Christ and being a Christian doesn’t mean you don’t suffer, and it certainly doesn’t mean you don’t get weary. But God does not want you to deal with your weariness alone.