Sharing Sin Struggles With One Another

September 17, 2014 | By Chuck

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."(Jas.5:16) The thought of confessing our sins to someone is very uncomfortable. Most of us are not the least bit interested in sharing our dirty laundry. Let's face it; we all have dirty laundry or sins that we struggle with. We would just rather keep that information to ourselves. Don't get me wrong, we like to talk. We just don't want to talk about our own personal sin struggles. We all have sin struggles but we lock them away in a compartment in our lives that we aren't willing to share with others. What we really need to do is become transparent. What I mean is unlock that hidden compartment that houses our sin struggles and confess and discuss those weaknesses with a close brother or sister in Christ. We are so reluctant to do that because we don't want others to judge us or look differently at us because of our sin. Brothers and sisters in Christ are family and family will not judge you or think differently of you. We all need the strength that comes from support as we struggle through this life. There are two ways in which we will benefit from sharing our sin struggles with a brother or sister. First of all, we'll gain strength just from the understanding supportive nature of our brother or sister in Christ. We will also be encouraged to learn that others share some of the same sin struggles that we have. Satan wants us to feel alone in our struggles so that we'll continue to struggle with the sin instead of overcoming it. Secondly, we'll definitely gain strength and much benefit from the prayer support of the brother or sister we confided in. The main reason we confess our sins to one another is so that we can pray for each other to be healed. The goal is to overcome our sin struggle and to do that we need the support and prayers of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Chuck Ball