“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (James 5:16)

A long time ago I lunched with a friend on Mondays.  I’d always ask him, “How are you, Skip?”

“Great, wonderful, marvelous and tremendous!” he’d answer.  Always!

On many Mondays I’d not had a good weekend, and life was not great, wonderful, marvelous, and tremendous for me.  But this guy was always emphatically optimistic. After this pattern continued for some time, one Monday I asked him, “Tell me something. If everything wasn’t great, wonderful, marvelous, and tremendous, how would you answer my question?”

“Oh, I’d probably lie to you,” he responded.

I then decided to rephrase my question.  I asked, “How are you, really, Skip?” He worked with a group of people who emphasized Scripture memory and they all memorized a verse of the week.  “Frankly, if you really want to know,” he said, “My verse of the week is, ‘Hang it on your beak, freak!’” We then had some really honest conversation, what I call “Reality Contact.”

What James had in mind is that if we are honest with each other we will be burdened to pray for each other.  Then as a result of our mutual prayers for one another we will be healed.  If when we meet together we are not honest, we will not pray for each other and the mutual healing will not happen.  One translation reads that our honest prayers will explode with power!

We should have this kind of relationship with a believer we trust, but we are missing something important if we do not have “Reality Contact” with someone.  Do you have that kind of relationship with anyone?