"No Capes": Superheroes use Superhuman Power of Prayer

No Capes!

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

James 5:16–18

If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Some days, I long for invisibility. Other days, for the ability to teleport. Someone once told me that they wished they could dodge raindrops. Personally, I feel that to be a bit of a waste of a superpower, but who am I to judge?

Superpowers are all about doing things which are beyond our usual abilities, and ordinarily out of our control. Consider the family in Pixar’s The Incredibles – super strength, body elasticity, invisibility and force fields, and super speed. Very superpower-y, and very useful in a crisis.

But alas, superpowers are only for fiction and those bitten by radioactive spiders. In our ordinary world we have only our very human abilities to assist us in a crisis.

In this passage, however, James suggests otherwise. Prayer, he says, is a powerful thing. It may look simple and unimpressive, but it has great resources at its disposal. It has, in fact, the power of God behind it.

Do we have to be superhuman to access this power? No, says James. Elijah was a righteous man, yes, but he was also ‘a human being, even as we are’. He was just like us, he was right with God, and his prayers stopped the rain! Quite the superpower if you ask me.

There was no special formula, no particular routine to it, no special suits – and certainly no capes – made by Edna Mode… Elijah just prayed. And the Lord listened to and answered his prayer.

James is clear: there is no situation in which prayer is not the proper response. Family crisis, lost keys, pandemic, broken down car, terminal illness. We must begin with prayer. I find that convicting yet deeply reassuring.

Joseph M. Scriven’s beloved hymn puts it beautifully:

What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer

Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer

Today, may we find conviction, rest, and encouragement in these words, and the God who hears and answers prayer.



Nell Goddard