We church folk do love the second part of this verse, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power…” There’s such hope in those words!
But what about the first part? We tend to gloss over that part, I mean, who wants to let other people know when they fail in their faithwalk?
I am grateful that Celebrate Recovery doesn’t shrink from “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” The people working through recovery embrace it. They exercise it. They grow through it.
When we confess our sins to one another, amazing things happen. The darkness in our souls is exposed to light and races elsewhere. That sin, false step, slip, or offense LOSES the POWER to keep us in that dark and sinful mindset.
When we let others in on our failures as well as our victories, we walk out our faith in strength, peace, power, and joy.
No, it’s NOT easy to do this.
Does God ever call us to do the easy?
With His help, we can become obedient to this word, however, and it’s a must if we want to live healthy, balanced lives as followers of Jesus.
There are churches that insist their followers get up and share their foibles each week in front of the whole congregation. I don’t think that’s what James meant. I think He meant we’re to develop relationships with people who will love us despite our sins—people who will call us out and point us back to Jesus every single time.
Paul wrote that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. With no condemnation, there is no shame in the obedience to this word: Tell other believers that you’ve messed up so they can pray with and for you for your complete soul healing and restoration in your relationship with God and man.
That also means being the trustworthy person that another can confess to, knowing that you will pray with and for them and point them back to Jesus, every single time.
It’s time to do the hard stuff, my friend. Your walk with the Lord depends on it.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
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