Healing will always come. Like James 5 says – prayers are powerful and effective.
SHAUNA: Hi this is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Here’s Joni with an important word about confessing sin.
JONI: I was talking to my friend, Connie, the other day, and, uh she shared how lately she’s been [well, she said it this way] “I’ve been nagging my husband.” She said, “I’ve been awful to him.” Now, I know Connie, and I would not consider her an “awful” person. And so, when I tried to make light of her comment, no, no, no, she insisted, “Joni, no, I have been acting terribly toward my husband, and it is important to me that I let you know that.” “Well, why is that?” I asked. Well, that’s when she reminded me of an important little verse in James 5 where it says that we should confess our sins to each other [get this] so that we might be healed. Connie explained, “Joni, I really need you to understand my problem with sin because I want to change. I want God to heal me and make me a better wife, and confession is a part of it.”
Afterward, our conversation got me to thinking because I don’t know too many people like Connie. People who take sin seriously, and I don’t think you do either – at least to the point where we regularly confess our sins to another person, so that we might be held accountable; be exposed, and healed, and changed. Nowadays, confession and repentance aren’t very public things in the church. We would rather our friends did not know the problems we have or the sinful habits that we keep private.
It sure wasn’t that way in the olden days. Confession and repentance were very public; it was a community thing, far from private. Let me give you an example from the Old Testament. Because back then, when someone presented an offering before God for his sin, it involved presenting before the priest not a bird, not two birds, no, no stalks of grain, no, it meant bringing an ox. When you were convicted of sin, you had to bring a bullock, an ox, before the priest. Now, just imagine that – a man leading a big, lumbering ox through the streets of Jerusalem to the temple did not have the luxury of “hiding his sin” as it were or “his need of repentance” from the rest of God’s people. Because anyone who happened to look out his window and see that neighbor heading to the temple with a big, lumbering ox knew that guy had blown it and had blown it big time.
Oh, friend, how good and how healthy it would be if we really did confess our sins one to another [just the way James 5 tells us to]. Rarely is repentance communal. Instead, our confession and repentance is almost invisible becoming tiny, a little private matter between us and God. And unfortunately, without public exposure of sin, deception always creeps in. If my friend Connie were sitting next to me today, she’d encourage us to be accountable before another Christian friend. Find someone [perhaps an older Christian that you respect]. Find a fellow believer with whom you can share your heart, not just the good things in your heart, but more importantly, the evil things—the sin—the ugly stuff from which you would love to be set free and be healed. Keep short lists with this person. I mean, we all say we’re sinners, right? Yet when was the last time we detailed our personal offenses to another person? When was the last time we said, “You know, I’m not just a sinner; I have specifically sinned, and here’s where.” Wow! James 5 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you might be healed.” That’s right, healing will come. It’s what always happens when you take your ox to the priest.
SHAUNA: Reach out to us at joniradio.org so we can pray for you. And thank you for listening to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope.
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