Brokenness Meets Healing Prayer

Pastor Dan Walker, PhD, MDiv

Introduction: When Broken Pieces Meet a Restoring God

Have you ever watched a cherished vase slip from a hand or shelf and fall to shatter on the floor? All of the beauty of the vase and its memories were reduced to broken fragments, seemingly beyond repair. Yet, imagine an artist, skilled and patient sees a vision of what could become of the fragments.

They carefully gather the broken pieces and begin the process of reassembling them with the proper glue. Now the seams between the broken pieces is highlighted with unique gold seams. The beauty of the restored vase is more profound than before the fall.

Each of us is broken like that vase in one way or another. Our brokenness is a result of sin, both our own sin and the sin of others against us. God wants to restore and bring healing to the broken places in our lives.

Psalm 34:18 (ESV) The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

The Lord is looking to bring comfort to those are brokenhearted and downcast in life. He draws near to those who feel overwhelmed by the weight of brokenness. His presence is not distant from pain, but active within it.

Psalm 147:3 (ESV) He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

This verse tells us that God is able and willing to bring healing to the broken hearted. He desires to heal the wounds in our lives that have been afflicted by others. His healing work is intentional, personal, and restorative.

What can prevent a person from receiving healing from the Lord for their brokenness? The first reason is simply lack of faith that God is able and willing to bring healing? This morning God desires to build our faith in the power of prayer to bring healing to our brokenness of all kinds.

The second thing that can prevent a person from receiving healing for their brokenness is simply denial. Thinking that they are completely whole and don’t need any healing or help from the Lord. Denial keeps us from receiving what God freely desires to give.

Revelation 3:17 (ESV) For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

This verse was written to the church at Laodicea. The people in that church thought they were doing great in life. They didn’t believe that they needed healing, prayer or God’s help in any area of their lives.

But God’s assessment of their lives is that they were wretched, pitiable, poor and naked. They were in really bad shape, but they didn’t realize it, they were in denial. Each one of us is broken in one way or another, some more than others.

But we all need God’s healing available through prayer each and every day. Today, we’re going to learn more about how our brokenness can meet healing prayer. And how you can bring healing to the brokenness of others through prayer.

The Power and Purpose of Prayer

James 5:13-14 (ESV) Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

James begins to explain to us the purpose of prayer. If you are suffering trouble or misfortune in your life, you are to pray. The word suffering in the Greek is a broad word referring to any type of difficulty.

What about those who are cheerful, who are not suffering? They are to sing praise, another type of prayer. Prayer is communicating with God, whether asking for things or praising him.

What is you are sick, a particular type of suffering? If you are sick, you are not just to pray for yourself, you are to call for the leaders of the church to pray over you and anoint you with oil in the name of the Lord Jesus.

James 5:15 (ESV) And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

This verse shows us the power of prayer for the sick. The prayer must be in faith. Both the one praying for the sick person and the sick person must be in faith that God can heal.

The prayer of faith will heal the sick person, save them from their illness. The sick will be raised up from their sickness to full health. If the sick person has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

The Bible makes clear that sin can result in illness, however not all illness is caused by sin. The next verse tells us that this forgiveness is not automatic. God’s healing work involves both faith and repentance.

James 5:16a (ESV) Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

We are to confess our sins to one another. To confess your sins is to acknowledge and repent of them to the person praying for you. Unconfessed sin is a major cause of people not being healed.

Verse 14 talked of being prayed for by the leaders of the church. The last part of verse 16 tells us that all believers should pray for one another. Faith, confession of sin and prayer leads to healing for our brokenness.

Growing in a Lifestyle of Prayer Together

Let’s talk about the opportunities we have at Life Church for prayer. First of all, we strongly encourage everyone to have a daily time of reading your Bible and praying by yourself and with your family. These daily rhythms build spiritual strength and dependence on God.

Next, we have opportunities to pray every Sunday morning in the service. We our prayer team available to pray for you. And we often give opportunities for you to pray for others around you.

During the week we have Life Groups where you have opportunities to get to know and pray for others in the group. I strongly encourage everyone to get involved in a Life Group. Every Wednesday night at 7 pm, we have a Life Group right here at the church.

We also have a Sunday morning Life Group at 8:30 am as an alternative. Every person needs both to take advantage of these three opportunities for prayer: personal, Sunday morning service and Life Groups. When you attend the Sunday morning or Wednesday night Life Group, you will get free access to the Bible Engagement phone app.

The Effectiveness of Righteous Prayer

James 5:16b (ESV) The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

The verse speaks of the great power of prayer that works or operates. This verse gives us another requirement for prayer with great power. The prayer must be of a righteous person.

What is a righteous person? A righteous person is a believer is walking with God. A righteous person is not walking in habitual unconfessed sin.

They are spending time in God’s Word, prayer and fellowship with the church family. A righteous person is not perfect, none of us are. But they are living daily following God’s plan for their lives.

James 5:17 (ESV) Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

James loves to give illustrations that help us understand the instructions he is giving us. Elijah was a powerful prophet in the Old Testament. In speaking of Elijah, James tells us that Elijah was a man just like us.

Why does he mention that? Because we have a great tendency to put the Bible heroes on a pedestal. Some call the Bible heroes saints and think they are greater than us.

Actually, the Bible calls all believers saints, there are no special saints to be canonized. The point is that we also can pray powerful prayers just like Elijah. He mentions one example, where Elijah prayed to bring judgement on Israel for their sins by bringing a drought.

James 5:18 (ESV) Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

Not only did Elijah stop the rain through prayer, he prayed again three years later and the rain began again. His prayer brought judgement to turn people’s hearts to God. And it brought the rain of blessing when they had turned back to God.

Walking Closely with God for Answered Prayer

There are many reasons for unanswered prayer that we’ve talked about today. Prayers must be in keeping with God’s will. We learned today that prayer for the sick to be healed is always God’s will.

Our prayers must be in faith and we need to be prayed for by others to be healed. Finally, we must be living righteous lives in order to have our prayers answered. If you are living in known sin or you are not living for God according to His Word, your prayers may not be answered.

At the end of the service, we are going to pray a prayer that God always answers. That is a prayer to repent and submit your life to Jesus as your Savior and Lord. The closer you walk with God, the more powerful your prayers become.

The Restoration of the Lost Through Prayer

James 5:19 (ESV) My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,

In the last section of James 5, James talks about praying for others, not just for yourself. This is an often neglected form of prayer, often called intercessory prayer. To intercede, is to pray for someone else, not yourself.

Praying for another person to be healed would be a form of intercessory prayer. However, in this verse James is speaking of someone wandering from the truth. Notice that this verse is addressed to brothers, which is believers.

He says that there may be a believer who wanders from the truth of God’s Word. What does that mean? It means that it is possible for a believer to wander back into sin, to wander from walking with God, to stop believing.

If someone stops believing and lives the life of a sinner, are they still a believer? The answer is no, as we’ll see even more clearly in the next verse. But that point of these verse is that someone needs to bring this wanderer back to Jesus and back to the church.

How is that done? Primarily through prayer. Prayer is not just for yourself or other believers, it must be for the lost, those who are not yet saved.

James 5:20 (ESV) let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

So what happens when this believer, this someone, brings back a sinner from his wandering away from God? It says that they save his soul from death. This is not speaking of physical death, but of eternal death, spending eternity in hell.

You see if someone wanders from their faith and is not brought back before they die, they will not go to heaven. This verse also says that the one who brings the wanderer back will cover a multitude of sins. This means that when the wanderer repents of his wandering sins, they will be forgiven, or covered by the blood of Jesus.

Interceding Faithfully for the Lost Around Us

There are two types of lost of unsaved people in the world. The first kind of people have never been saved, they have never repented and believe in Jesus. Many people think that are saved for various reasons, but if they have not repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, they are not.

The second type of lost person in the world is the one we have just talked about. This is the person who genuinely believed in Jesus at one time, but now has wandered away from their faith. They no longer believe in Jesus and so are not a believer, they are lost again.

Prayer is the means of seeing both of these kinds of lost people saved and brought into the family of God. Oftentimes we focus on prayer for ourselves and our needs, which is well and good. But we need to intercede for the lost all around us, the are headed for an eternity in hell if they do not believe in Jesus.

On Tuesday mornings at from 7:30 – 8:30 am, we have St Louis Revival Prayer right here. This is an opportunity to pray with other believers for God to bring revival to our church and all of St Louis. Revival is just another word that means we are praying for the lost to be saved.

The time of this prayer meeting is designed so that people can come and pray before they go into work. I encourage everyone to participate in Revival Prayer on Tuesday mornings at 6:30am. The lost can be restored through the power of prayer.

Conclusion: From Brokenness to Beauty Through Healing Prayer

As we close today, let’s return to the image of the shattered and broken vase. The lives of every lost person, including ours before we were saved are broken, just like the vase. But when a person gets saved, Jesus begins to restore each of those broken fragments into a beautiful vase.

Jesus can bring healing into the brokenness of your life and the lives of those around you. No one is too broken that Jesus cannot save. Jesus can save every broken person and make them beautiful and whole once again.

Let us in this church family grow in prayer, praying on our own. Praying with others, for healing of every brokenness and the saving of every lost person. No one is too far from God, too broken or too sinful, that Jesus cannot save.

With God nothing is impossible. Broken people can be restored to beautiful children of God through healing prayer.

📘 Continue the Journey

Reflect deeper and apply this week’s message with the Message Study Guide — perfect for personal devotions, family discussion, or your Life Group.

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