Have you ever convinced a child that medicine tasted great, and then felt the need to repent for your little white lie moments later? Temporary side effects often accompany the things that we need the most, but the anticipation of that bitter taste can be even worse.

Healing the sickness in our souls meets similar obstacles. James 5 prescribes prayer for anyone suffering physically or spiritually, anyone needing to give or receive forgiveness, and anyone straying from the Lord’s way (v. 13-20).

But if prayer is a powerful remedy, why do we cover our mouth and keep it away from our lips when it’s needed the most? It’s simple. Our weakened faith fears a bitter taste from God’s healing.

We don’t ask for our lives to be changed because we fear the unknown. We don’t pray for guidance because we dread discipline. We don’t pray for forgiveness of our sins because of shame. We don’t pray for the strength to forgive others because we want to hold on to our anger. Sometimes the prayer we need to say the most is the one we avoid most often.

Jesus said some of the hardest prayers ever recorded. When he knew his torture and death were merely hours away, he prayed – “in agony … (as) his sweat became like drops of blood” – that God’s will be done, and not his own (Luke 22:43-44). Praying that God take control, regardless of the trials, takes faith.

And when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he summoned the strength and love to pray, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). How many of us skip a prayer of forgiveness because we find false comfort in bitterness?

A prayer slump, like an illness, only gets worse when the obvious medicine is avoided. Smaller symptoms grow larger when lesser prayers are log-jammed behind the big request we can’t bring ourselves to make.

In I John 5:14, the Lord tells us that we can approach Him with confidence, “that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us.” Rest assured, God’s desire is that we abandon our own understanding and seek His guidance.

So say the prayer you have been avoiding for so long. The Lord promises only healing from his prayerful medicine – and never a bitter aftertaste.

– Adam Sparks