New topic: Pray with Us for Struggling Christians and Persecuted Church. Remember you can still pray for Families and the Church.
Good morning.
I’ve been thinking about this following passage for a long time. I see the church obeying certain parts of the Bible on a regular basis and some parts seem to be obeyed more reluctantly. There may be people obeying this quite often, but I’ve not been aware of it. I have found though, that doing it to my wife helps me.
I’m talking about confessing our sins to each other. “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective,” (James 5:14-16).
Why should we confess our sins to each other? Should I blunder out the deepest, darkest secrets of my heart? What about Jesus’ warning not to throw your pearls to the pigs (Matthew 7:6)? Wouldn’t people take advantage of such knowledge and then reject us?
In this context the sick person called for prayer. Any unconfessed sin would hinder prayer (Isaiah 59:1, 2 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2059:1-2&version=NIV1984) and confessing our sins would open God’s heart to receive our prayer with joy. Picture a son living in a way that annoys his dad. He does all kinds of things that embarrass his parents and disregards his dad’s advice and warnings. Would his dad be keen to help him when he asks e.g. for money to spend on his unacceptable lifestyle? Any wise father would expect of him to repent, change his ways and respect his parents before he would help him. Otherwise we just strengthen him in his wrongdoing, don’t we? We were made in God’s image and if we feel like this, the Lord is even more adamant about it. It is written all over the Bible that the Lord wants us to confess our sins.
But why should we do it one to another? Confessing your sins to a total stranger would probably not be wise, but doing it to a trusted friend holds great benefit. If we confess our sins to another we burn bridges behind us. We bring it to the light and then this sin loses its power. As long as we hide things and keep it in the dark, it has power over us. The devil needs darkness to do his work. I had a very strong temptation that overcame me regularly until I started to discuss the problem openly with my best friend - my wife. As long as I kept it in the dark, I could find excuses and justification to do it, but the moment I bring it to the light I’m delivered from it.
To confess our sins when we are sick therefore brings double healing. We become pure before the Lord, our relationship with Him is restored and therefore He’ll gladly heal us. We are also healed of the burden and the repercussions of the sin, which we experienced while keeping it secret. If our trusted friend knows about the sin, we’ll not easily sin again and this brings deliverance, particularly if it’s something we struggle with.
Those on the receiving end of a confession will also be kept responsible for keeping it to themselves, for love does not keep record of the wrongs (1 Corinthians 14:5) and you would not like to be a pig trampling your friend’s pearls, would you?
Maybe we should follow this instruction of James more to the letter in our churches, for then we’ll see more of God’s power.
Lord, please give me confidence to be honest about my sin.
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
If you benefited from this, why don’t you link it to your Facebook or Twitter or forward the e-mail reminder to make it available to your friends? You can also use the e-mail link to pass it on. Please pray as well for its distribution to those who need it and feel free to ask questions or discuss thoughts.
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