Confess

There is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while.  It is something that the Word of the Lord speaks about, but I don’t hear about much.  In James 5:13-18 it says this, “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”  James speaks about prayer and gives us some practical ways that we should go about it.  First it talks about suffering and it specifically says let him pray.  

Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  We will all have trials and tribulations even if we are believers and some of these things will include suffering also.  Paul said that if anyone lives a godly life they will be persecuted.  These are some other verses you can look up on this subject: Acts 20:19, James 1:2, Acts 14:22 and there are many more.

After he talks about cheerfulness, James talks about being sick, saying let them call for the elders of the church and let them anoint the sick with oil in the name of the Lord and pray for them with faith and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven.  In this context, from what I understand, it is talking about people that are too sick to leave their homes so they call for the elders to pray for them because they are so sick.  Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with the elders anointing people with oil in the church and praying with faith for them in the name of the Lord. 

Now this is the part that you don’t hear about very often, in fact, I can never remember hearing anyone preach about it.  It says confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.  Think about this, have you ever confessed your sins to anyone else or has anyone ever confessed their sins to you?  Have you ever heard anyone speak on this subject?  I confessed some sins just yesterday in a prayer meeting, which I don’t think I have ever done and I have to say that I felt a peace throughout the day, praise the Lord!!  

What about this, do you have anyone that you are accountable to that will ask you the hard questions?  It may be a good idea if the pastors started preaching on this subject and helping people to take this subject more seriously.  When you do this, you may free up others to practice the same thing helping them to get set free.  I know it is going against the grain and not an easy thing to do but in the end I think you will find it very helpful.  Just think, if everyone knew that they would have to confess their sins to one another and be held accountable to someone else for their sins, they would try much harder to resist sin as much as possible.  Sometimes you may feel that God is out of sight like we hear this phrase, “out of sight, out of mind,” but what would you do if He was standing right in front of you?  I think we would all live much holier lives.  Now think of this, He is always there, the Lord said He will never leave us or forsake us. That should be enough in itself to help us to resist sin, but standing in front of people having to confess our sins should also give all of us an incentive to resist sin.

James also talked about the faith Elijah had when he prayed, we need to pray with faith also believing that we will receive the things we pray for if we are praying the will of God!!  Please read 1 John 5:13-15, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

Enough said, I have given you something to think about and I hope it has been a help and an encouragement.  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!! PS don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord for He is worthy!!