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, New Living Translation.
For the past couple of weeks I’ve known that I needed to talk with someone that I know—you know, set the record straight. I’ve wanted to talk to this person and really didn’t know quite how to begin a real conversation. I mean there’s been the quick “hi” and “good-bye” with regularity—but it’s not been real—just polite. We were able to have awesome conversations in the past; and to be honest, I don’t really quite remember where things went wrong. Things just haven’t been ‘right’ for a while now. So what did I do? I decided that it was time to have a real conversation.
My start to the conversation began with acknowledging that things haven’t been right between us lately and admitting that I really didn’t know why. This wasn’t a blame game and I didn’t try to skirt the issue; instead, I tried to understand my own behavior and the context of our friendship—then and now. I admitted that things weren’t the way that I wanted them to be and I was standing there in front of this person hoping that my desire for real reconciliation would be something that we both wanted—and it was. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to talk about all of the things that I didn’t say—or that I should’ve said. And more than that, I’m grateful for the restored friendship. A friendship that was restored because we both had the courage to say what was on our minds in a way that allowed us both to hear each other with compassion.
The thing of it is that the realization to talk openly and honestly came out of this part of the verse, “Confess your sins to each other.” The definition for confess is “to disclose (something damaging or inconvenient to oneself); admit; acknowledge.” Basically, the first part of this verse is about taking responsibility for your behavior or actions and reconciling with one another. I knew I needed to do that. After much time thinking and waiting for the proverbial ‘right time,’ when the ‘right time’ came, I knew that I was the one that needed to open the door.
The interesting thing is that it wasn’t until after our conversation that I realized the wisdom in this verse. While I’ve been keeping this person in prayer, it’s only since we’ve talked, that I can see how my first thoughts are now free to dwell on this person’s specific needs without distractions of anything else. Before, even though I would pray for their needs, my thoughts would be overshadowed by things not being right between us—but not now.
In setting the record straight, I allowed myself to be released from any distractions that might hamper this relationship–this friendship. What came next was the ability to have real prayer and not only healing for the friendship, but also personal healing. The amazing thing is that this alone has resulted in something more wonderful then I could have hoped for.
© 2004 Ginny Rogers
