How to Pray When You're Suffering

Joseph Scriven lost two fiancées before either wedding and still wrote the words "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." A life of that much pain stood behind one of the most beloved hymns ever written — and it would have been far more tragic without prayer. In this message from James 5:13–18, the closing sermon in our study of James, Dr. Abidan Shah walks through what the Bible actually teaches about prayer in the middle of suffering. This isn't ordinary prayer. When you're financially strained or a relationship is strained, there's always another day. But suffering means you need relief now — you can't wait. Dr. Shah works through four things James teaches about praying through pain: that we must keep praying and never assume we're bothering God, that God welcomes the hurting the way Jesus healed everyone who came to Him, that suffering is a time to honestly examine our own hearts, and that real prayer is offered with intensity and integrity — no "back door" left open for God to slip out of. Along the way he shares two stories his father rarely told: a village showdown over a grieving man's dead wife, and a hospital-room prayer that raised a dying girl who sat up asking for bread. Both point to the same truth — God always keeps His promises. The question is whether we keep ours.