James 5:16 NLT
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.
The pressure released when you bear your soul to another human being is beyond measure.
It can make you feel like the weight of the world is lifted off your shoulders.
This is where healing begins.
If we have truly accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, ALL of our sins has been forgiven. There is nothing that we can do to separate ourselves from God.
But our will to do the wrong thing should decrease as we grow in our faith, and we should be in a pattern of recognizing our sins and repenting these actions. This should be a pattern of living that develops within us over time with the study of the Word of God, meditating on His Word, and prayer.
The reason we confide in others is for healing, to release the pressure, not for forgiveness. Forgiveness was completed with the words, ”It is finished.”
Thank you, Lord Jesus!!
Now look at what happens next…
The prayer of a ”righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”
What result are we looking for?
We’re looking to release the anchor ⚓ of sin from our past and the sin we may think we are hiding from God now.
Here’s the truth, we can hide nothing from God, and He has already forgiven the sin we think we are hiding.
Psalm 103:12 NLT
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
Micah 7:19 NLT
Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!
The process of confession to another believer helps us relieve the pressure of guilt over our sin. To provide healing, we need to move forward in our faith.
There is power in the prayer of a righteous person.
The power that Jesus exercised on the cross dying for all of our sins is truly all we need, but I don’t think we’ll fully understand that until the day of Jesus Christ.
I believe that Jesus has given us this relief and healing through confession to another believer to help us lean on each other in Christ.
1. For us to trust other believers with our hearts.
2. For us to be there for others to confide in, for us to focus on prayer for and the needs of others.
And as believers, we are called to do both of those things until Jesus Christ returns.
The last part is simply an idea forming in my mind, but I will continue to search scripture to validate that thinking or give me the proper thought about the subject.
Matthew 18:20 NLT
For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NLT
Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
There is no real spiritual growth alone. True spiritual growth requires us to lean on each other for both support and to help.
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for Your grace, mercy and forgiveness.
Help me be there for my brothers and sisters in Christ with their challenges and give me the courage to trust them with my problems.
Help me to see others the way that You see them and make my heart sensitive and compassionate, responding to the prompting of Your Spirit, helping them with the resources that I do have, giving of my time and financial resources, realizing that with You these resources are infinite when used in Your name with complete faith in You.
Help me to understand that You can take what I look at as finite and multiple it infinitely when I willingly give it up for You in faith.
In the precious, gracious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I pray in fully submitted faith to You, Amen!! 🙏❤️
