Day 8 - It ain't easy
Scripture focus: Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven—healed inside and out. Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. James 5:13-16 The Message
Confession isn't for sissies. Nor is it a magic potion.
On my favorite show, "Biggest Loser," I watched one of the brave contestants confess, confess, confess – until her trainer, Bob Harper blew a gasket. Here's what happened. This young lady wasn't really pulling her weight (no pun intended) during daily workouts, and Bob gave her some feedback. She thanked him. She talked about and actually said all the right things: "I will be strong. I will do my best. I will give you my best effort, etc." The problem is that her talk didn't match her walk! She confessed, and stood on the sidelines. She confessed, and took breaks when she was supposed to be working. She confessed gratitude for his feedback and then refused to submit to his authority. Frankly, she gave confession a bad name – because she wasn't confessing the truth! She was saying what she thought was the right answer, but what she was saying on the outside didn't match what she was really thinking and feeling on the inside. Confession is good when properly administered. But before we jump to application, let's make sure we truly understand the meaning of confession within the context of today's scripture focus.
Confess – ekzomologeo – a word that means to declare, to say out loud, to exclaim, to divulge, or to blurt - blurt out what?
Sins – faults – paraptoma – a falling in some area of one's life, a person who has accidentally bumped into something or one who has accidentally swerved or turned amiss and has thus thought something or done something that is erroneous Literally, this verse is saying blurt out when we've accidentally bumped into something, or taken a wrong turn, or maybe even done something wrong, or that has tripped us up. Our "Biggest Loser" contestant could confess like this: "Bob, I am afraid I can't exercise the way you ask me to. Bob my body is tired. Bob my personality prefers pina coladas to push ups. Bob there is nothing within me that wants to run on this treadmill." And Bob could reply, "But your spirit wants to soar! You want to be your true self. Your thoughts, feelings and dragging feet are holding you back. Move it!"
And if she does, she wins. If she doesn't, then she wasn't really confessing – she was complaining (or asking someone on the outside to make her feel better on the inside). To be continued….
Recommended reading: Exodus 22-24
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