James talks about prayer and the reasons we must be a people who are known by it in today’s verses. Prayer is, in its simplest form, communication with God, talking with Him. It is not meditation or reflection, it is communication with the one who created us. Prayer can be silent or audible, in private or public, formal or informal. In James 1 he says we offer our “prayers” in trust that God hears us. John 16 we are told to pray in Jesus’ “name.” In Romans 8 we are told that we pray by the power of the God’s Spirit.
There is a long and protracted focus on our faith resulting in works in the book of James. The emphasis on works has caused some people to put the apostle Paul’s view of grace at odds with the views James, but nothing could be further from the truth. James is most likely the earliest letter written in the New Testament and as such show a strong pastoral care for how to live out our faith in Jesus in practical ways.
