Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. ~James 5:16a (NIV)
It has been said that revealing is the beginning of all healing. James 5:16 confirms that to be true. What are you holding on to today that should have been let go a long time ago? Hidden hurts tend to fester. We all respond to emotional wounds differently. Some of us act out, some of us get angry, others self-medicate with drugs or alcohol and some of us react in a combination of several different ways. How deep are your hurts? The truth is that we will never get over our hidden wounds that we have held in the dark until we are willing go to God with them and let Him shine the light of His word on them. Scripture teaches that bottling up our hidden wounds will wear us out. David said in Psalm 32:3 “When I kept things to myself, I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long.” (NCV) Have you been moaning all day long? If we use up all of our emotional energy on past hurts, we won’t have much energy left for today. We don't have to spend all of our time on regrets and resentments, thinking about what others have done to hurt us or what we should have done differently or better. That will only drain our energy for what matters here and now. God has given us the ability to come to Him for emotional healing and for the restoration of a right attitude!
God’s answer for every pain starts with a good talk with Him on the matter. We have to bring God into that part of our lives. We have to tell Him our heart is broken over our sin or the sin of others and let Him do the healing. He will show us the right way to get things straightened out in every area of our lives and with every person. But be ready! It might not be the way that you wanted to handle things. That is why God tells us to confess our sins to each other. More often than not we are confessing what others have done wrong rather than confessing our inappropriate actions. Jesus says we should get the beam out of our own eye before we start picking at the splinter in our brothers! We have to be ready to give and forgive, selflessly and in the minute if we are going to maintain our peace and good health. No amount of healthy eating and exercise will bring the peace Jesus has to offer, only being right with God and man can make that happen. Put God's word to the test and talk to Him about what is wearing you out. The Lord knows we all have attitudes and behaviors that need to change but those attitudes and behaviors do not affect God’s great love for us. He is bigger than our weaknesses and shortcomings. He says He has made us perfect in Christ. He knows where we don’t believe we measure up and He wants to heal our hearts to trust Him that He is working all things together for our good. The Lord tells us in Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer..” (NIV) Prayer changes you, it changes situations and it even changes others. Don’t tarnish in your own heart what you believe God thinks of you. He is not intimidated by anything and especially not by your weaknesses!
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ~James 5:16b (NIV)
What are you moaning about today?
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