What No One Does

Love you all, praying for you.
 
I just love God’s Word.  It tells you of things you should do… habits of the Godly.  Have you ever noticed that some things the Bible commands for believers in Christ, people rarely if ever do?  Something crazy happened recently, I got a message from someone I know.  So odd and surprising.  A message that I have never gotten from anyone ever before in my life.  Unfortunately I didn’t realize it was one that needed to be saved, or it was lost.  So I reconstructed it to the best of my recollection.  It started out,  Hi Kelly, I’m just sending you this message because I need to apologize to you.  I was talking with “___” (He said the name of the person) about _____ (something that had been associated with me), and I said something negative about you.  And you didn’t deserve that, you’ve been nothing but a blessing to me, and I’m sorry I did that, I wish I had never done it, but I need to confess my sins one to another so I might be healed, and I’m asking you to forgive me.”  It caught me off guard.  Who does that?  Not say negative things about someone – everyone does that, it’s a cancer.  But who confesses that sin to the person that was affected by it?  No-one.  “James 5:16  - Confess your sins to one another, and pray for each other that you may be healed…  How often do we do it?  I’ve gotten round about apologies, and diluted confessions, but never something straight on – fully transparent – humbly asking for forgiveness.  And it made me think – how many times have I done that to someone?  Spoken negatively, and actually asked forgiveness transparently?  I hate to say it, but I’m hard pressed to come up with an example.  Why don’t we?  Because it would make us look bad, and we don’t want people to know what we say behind their back.  But talk about a deterrent… if you knew you would have to seek forgiveness, you’d stop talking about people.  God says “confess our sins one to another?  That includes sins against each other – to each other.  I said this about you, and I shouldn’t have, or I said this about you that could have diminished your reputation.  And I should not have done that, I am sorry, would you please forgive me for talking about you in that manner?  I should have come to you first, not go to someone else.  Or I should have asked that person if they came to you first, and not talked about it, instead of taking offense for them, and joining them in it.  I was shocked by the humility of this person.  I called him back, and of course I forgave him.  And commended Him for his challenging example of humility and obedience.  I don’t hold anything against you, and I don’t think any less of you.  I forgive you – I give up my right to hold anything against you. And I couldn’t help but think, what if everyone in our family, or our church, obeyed God’s command in this area, not only would we walk together in unity, it’s an effective deterrent.  Nothing stops ungodly behavior – like knowing you’ll have to confess and seek forgiveness for it from that person.   God said do not slander one another (that means say anything that would cast them in a negative light, or lessen their reputation in the eyes of others.  (Col 3:8, James 4:11) Do not say anything harmful – it’s part of the Fear of the LORD.  Anything that you wouldn’t say if they were present, don’t say it, rather encourage them to make things right with their brother or sister, and decline to encourage their offense.  It’s part of being a righteous man or woman.  Because the second part of that verse says, the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.  Clearly indicating that confessing your sins to one another – isn’t just for your healing, it’s for the effectiveness of your prayer, so God hears it.  Pray for me, that I will obey God’s Word in confessing, and I’m praying for you that you would be humble too, and that God will help us love well.  Not just do something nice for someone, but avoid evil – anything that would harm them.  That we would be healed, and our prayers would be effective. 
 
Love you all,
dad