September 7
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 5:13-17 (The Message)
- We are responsible for asking God and others to help us recognize and take ownership of "our part" in whatever pickle we find ourselves in. This will require community.
- We are responsible for turning from evil and toward good. This is repentance.
Have you ever found yourself judging the confession of another? I once knew this guy who came to me and confessed something that he thought was a great sin -- and as far as I can tell, he was right. But the problem for me was that I knew his extended family, and I had heard stories about this fellow for years. Maybe none of these stories were true, but if they were, he had plenty more worth confessing then the story he shared with me. I was tempted to judge his confession. My mind raced with this thought, "Really, of all the stories, this is the one you feel compelled to confess?" Quickly I put the skids on that kind of thinking. Past experience helped me avoid a potentially painful judgmental moment.
I made the decision a long time ago that other people's confessions were not my business to judge. I was glad I didn't need to think about how to respond to his story. I simply listened, prayed with him and let him take responsibility for asking God and others to hear his story. He is responsible for turning from evil and toward good. He decides with the most clarity he can muster -- with God's help and his community's support -- exactly what to confess.
If he is willing, he will utilize his community to help him with this process. His community has responsibility to serve him in a way that respects boundaries. When we as a community get confused on this point, we'll probably find ourselves on the slippery slope of to and for confusion. Perhaps that's why Galatians six reminds us, "But what yourself, or you also may be tempted."
When I'm feeling tempted to judge another, I often discover I have some unconfessed junk in my own trunk. May we lighten our own load of unconfessed sin today, so that we will be more equipped to share in the carrying of other's burdens tomorrow.
Recommended reading: 2 Chronicles 18-20
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1 comment:
I love the book of James. That half brother brings how I should be living to a full boil nothing half baked by this half brother of Christ. I had a discussion today splaining that those of us that lived in addiction most of our lives had to figure out how to live in society once we cleaned up. I did not clean up to just live in the recovery rooms although there are worse places to live. I got clean to live the life God intended me to live. Actually I cannot say that is really why I got clean. Got clean because I feared death is the real reason. I feared going to the next level that my addiction would take me. So the choice was go there or go get help. The 12 steps taught me something about how to not drink and drug but then there is the task of living in society. The book of James laid it out for me: Dont show favorism, tame my tongue, let me show my good life through my actions done with humility that comes from wisdom, that wisdom that comes from self is full of envy so seek wisdom from heaven that is submissive and full of mercy impartial and sincere, seek motives full of Gods wisdom not mine,come near to God and HE will come near to us,do not slander our brothers and sisters,no boasting about tomorrow as we are like a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes we should ask if it is the Lords will,anyone that knows the good he should be doing and doesn't sins, blessed are those that persevere in His way, let you yes be yes and no be no while not swearing oaths to heaven or hell, the prayer of a rightous man is powerful yet we must have the faith in this fact,and if we bring one that has wandered away into the death of sin and lead them back to the Lord it will save him from death and cover a multitude of his sin. For those early in recovery trying to figure out how to live and what to do my hope is you will tune into James. Read it,meditate on its instructions, grab someone and talk about it.
Peace Y'all
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