Confessional Friends

"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results." James 5:16

I touched on this on Sunday, but we don't practice enough of it. We don't talk honestly and openly enough about those things that keep us from God.

But when we do several things happen. First, there is something powerfully healing that happens when people confess their sins to one another in an authentic way. It's out of the darkness and into the light! You've cut off it's source of life.

Secondly, there is bonding into strands of our lives. New trust levels are entered into and friendships are allowed to go beyond what's on the surface. We are truly able to pray into one another's lives and not just at one another's lives.

Thirdly, confession creates covenant. When we voice our disdain over something in our life we are saying: 'This is who I am and I want to change!' We create this covenant with the other person of desiring to move nearer to God.

How about you . . . How have you seen confession bring great power and wonderful results??

As You Pray . . .

As we join millions of others today during the National Day of Prayer asking God to humble us and transform us . . . here are some reminders:

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Jesus in Luke 11:9-10)

". . . I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (Jesus in John 16:23-24)

"Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." (James 5:16)

"Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!" (Andrew Murray)

"God does nothing but by prayer, and everything with it." (John Wesley)