I Have a Confession...

Life has a way of allowing us to keep secrets. We hide the very things that we are ashamed of to protect ourselves

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I remember when I was a sophomore in High School, I took this physical science class. Science, come to find out, was/is not my strong suit. I remember getting a C on my progress report and I was afraid to show it to my parents!

Listen! You don’t know fear until you have two African parents who believe getting straight A’s is GOSPEL! I recall dreading to go home because I knew that my progress report was going to upset them so much so that I wouldn’t even want to go back to school again. 

So, I hid it from them.

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 (James 5:16 NLT).

Upon writing this blog, I thought about the idea of confession. I asked myself, “Why would I need to confess something to someone that is bothering me?” So, I started to look further into the text and it said, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed!

There is HEALING that comes through CONFESSION!

Remember how I said I tried to hide my progress report away from my parents? Well at the school I attended, I had to get my parents to sign it before I could go back to school. I waited till the very last minute of the day to show it to them. As I was heading to my demise (so I thought), surprisingly they were not as mad as I thought they would have been. They encouraged me to do better and offered help! I was so afraid to tell them my grade for fear that I would not meet their expectation of who they thought I was. I was afraid to show them an area in which I was struggling in. I also felt, at the time, that I couldn’t come to them because their expectations for me was so high.

Many of us feel the same way, especially in the area of confession. We won’t tell anyone what we are going through for fear that they will look down on us, talk about us, or identify an area that we are weak in.

I still have this issue because it is very hard for me to let even the closest people to me know what I am going through.  As I read the scripture, I realized if I want to be free from the situation I have to confess it. I have to ASK for HELP!

There is a freedom that comes from confession. When we confess our sins to the Lord, we are saying, “I feel exposed, but I trust YOU.” We don’t always have to go up to the Pastor for prayer, though important, we can get healed in our community of friends by letting them in on our every day lives. God put people in our lives to help us grow, SO YOU ARE NOT ALONE. There is someone out there who needs to hear your story, so that they can feel open enough to confess.

When you are sick and need to get well, you will go to a Doctor and get meds because you are tired of feeling the way you do! We need to get tired of being sad, lustful, angry, frustrated, confused, and take our problem to the Lord first and then pray for good relationships so we can have ACCOUNTABILITY.

I love the tail end of the scripture because it says, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” When we have people who can pray and agree on our situation, it will then produce POWER and wonderful RESULTS. I know we all want to see freedom in areas that have a hold on us!

We have to first stop dressing up our pain in fine clothing and walking around like we are not hurting! We have covered up our issues so nicely, that we have convinced ourselves that we don’t need help. I, for one, know first hand that I don’t like to look or feel weak but it is in our weakness that God is STRONG.

The apostle Paul said it like this, “Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2nd Cor. 12:9-10 NLT).”

When you are WEAK, then YOU ARE STRONG. You want to know why? When you confess that area to the Lord, He can then build you up again. If you don’t confess it, you will wear yourself out trying to fix it. If you don’t allow those people who God has put in your life to help you, then you miss out on an opportunity for them to build you up, pray for you, and then receive your healing. God has entrusted and assigned us to people. If you are weak, you need someone to encourage you on this journey because it is not easy.

Lastly, I was so discouraged yesterday about a few things that I couldn’t bring myself to write this blog last night. God led me to Luke 7:35-50 and I wept when I understood the importance of confession. I won’t go into every verse but, please read it!

This story deals with a woman who the Bible calls a sinner. This woman, in her sins, learned where Jesus was and she went to Him with an alabaster flask of ointment. She stood behind Jesus and wet His feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair on her head, and kissed His feet and anointed them with ointment.

This woman, though she sinned, wanted to feel worthy again. She humbled herself enough to position herself before Jesus and was willing to come to Him in her mess. In verse 50, Jesus told her, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

If she never would have come to Jesus, she never would have been free from her sins. She would have lived in shame, resentment, depression, and grief. She chose to confess with her actions because she wanted the Lord’s forgiveness. He in turn gave this woman the posture of her heart and that was love. Don’t let the problem you are in now grow on the inside of you, leave it at the feet of Jesus.

I pray that as you read this, God is bringing new people in your life. I pray that He is softening your heart towards Him. I pray that you won’t allow rejection and mistrust to deter you away from the freedom He has afforded you. I pray that you will become so tired about the way that you feel that you will ask for help! I pray that God will give you praying, loving individuals who want the absolute best for you and want to see you grow. In Jesus’ name! Amen.

I love you all, but God loves you more.