One way I’m pursuing victory and healing over my own depravity . . .
As I reflect and think on what I’ve done this past year to find victory over my own identity, relationship struggles and strongholds, God has been teaching me to live out James 5:16, “Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” Oftentimes, people look at ministers as “having it all together” and not having to deal with weaknesses and struggles. For me, this life I live and walk with Christ each day has seasons of strength AND weakness. Oftentimes, I feel like a “yo yo Christian” – victory, defeat, victory, defeat! I must say though that as I am seeking to LIVE OUT James 5:16, I am much more aware and conscious of honoring God in all my ways. I have made huge strides in my efforts to find victory, but I have plenty of “me” to keep me humble.
God led me to a fellow Christian layman of our church in the fall of 2007. Here is what happens when we meet: we simply share our life together -- our victories AND our defeats. We offer one another Godly counsel and sometimes painful feedback or advice for a solution. We always end our time praying over one another. See, when you enter into a place of honesty, vulnerability, and authenticity with someone else, and you really become real, it’s amazing how liberated you feel! Unexplainable! I would be lying though if I said it was easy to be very honest when you first begin meeting. So, I challenge you to be brutally honest with your group. There is such joy in walking in grace and watching the guilt melt away, and realizing that all along, the enemy wants us to be isolated and to feel like such a “Wretch”. According to James 5:16, we find Victory and Healing as we obey this simple passage. Our group is now made up of three men who meet once a week for about one hour. We support one another in prayer and literally carry one another’s burdens at times. We rejoice when we see victory’s won!
I’m praying that you will find that person or persons to help you live out James 5:16!
Whit Bass
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Hey Whit ~ one way we can live out James 5:16 is by getting involved in Celebrate Recovery. It is not just for people with addictions! As you know, it is for people with any hurts, habits or hang-ups! Close friendships are formed and accountability partners too. Hope more of our church family will take advantage of this group!
ReplyDeleteIt pleases God when we confess our sins to one another because it reveals humility and also the exposes the enemy. Its one way of ensuring that the enemy doesn't gain a foothold in our lives and that we can truly live and walk in victory which Christ intended for us to have. Being vulnerable and transparent is of utmost importance also for healing. The root source of the problem must be exposed.
ReplyDeleteAccountability partners are great. A word of advice woman should have woman and men should have men as accountability partners. We must guard our hearts and minds against the evil schemes of the enemy.
ReplyDeleteHealing comes when we openly confess to one another.
What a blessing reading your article! Believe me, you are NOT alone in feeling that "you don't have it all together". For over four years now, I have wondered WHAT in the world God is doing to me, or even WHY He is still allowing me to live. Only God knows the depth of the valley that I have walked through for so long. You will never know the blessing you have been and were to me by coming and praying with me or just by stopping me from time to time and telling me that you were praying for me. ONLY by God's grace and mercy and the wonderful friends that I have found at First West have I survived. So next time you are feeling like a "yo-yo christian" remember in whose hands that you are being held, and that HE will always make sure that you "re-coil" in those hands. WHAT A PROMISE!
ReplyDeleteI am so often reminded that "I continually put TOO MUCH of my here, here. I need to understand that when I put MORE of my here, there, I get MORE of HIS there, here for today!"