Confess it!!

Romans 3:23 says that ALL of us have sin and come short of the glory of God. I believe this to be true, but recently I've been wondering, why are we all acting like we don't struggle with sin. Why aren't we confessing our sins not just to God, but one another. I am not saying that you should just go around telling everyone your business and what you struggle with, but I feel like we don't even tell the people that are closet to us. I can't speak for anyone but myself and since this is my blog I will obviously speak from my own experience.

Why don't I tell others what I struggle with?

Well, the obvious answer is because I don't want people all up in my business!! Lol Seriously though, why would I want someone to know my sin and what I battle with everyday. Why do I want to risk someone judging me? Why do I want to risk someone throwing something back in my face? You might say, well maybe you should find someone who is trustworthy and wouldn't judge you. That's true, I could find someone or maybe even a couple of people to confide in, but that's still hard to just let yourself be vulnerable in that way. Plus, as loving and trustworthy as those people are...they're sinners too and you never know what someone could do with that information.

Plus, telling other people what you struggle with means they get to see the REAL you (or should i say ALL of you). Not the you that you put on that shows everyone you handle everything just fine and life couldn't be any better. The you that shows, I am a mess, I gossip, I lie, I don't care about certain people or situations, I need attention, I want people to like me, I don't like you, I don't like myself......the list can go on and on.

Being vulnerable and honest about your sin is hard, BUT it is sooooooo necessary.

Why should I confide in others about what sin I'm struggling with?

Well for one, the Bible calls us to do it. James 5:19 says "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed....". I believe confessing your sins to others helps you to fight your sin because now it's not hidden. Someone else knows what you are struggling with and can help to hold you accountable when they see you behaving in such a way that would make you yield to temptation. Having someone hold you accountable can help you fight your sin and now you have someone praying specifically for you to fight this certain sin in your life.

I believe confessing sin to others is beneficial not just for you, but for the person you are confiding in. I don't know about you, but when people open up to me about anything they are struggling with it makes me feel good to know I am not alone. We may not have the same struggles, but knowing we both are struggling with something, makes me feel less alone. So many of us hide behind walls and hold things in because the devil makes us believe that we are the only one feeling this way. Example, this is not necessarily a "sin" issue, but I am a mother and being a mother is hard. I love my son and the joy he brings to my life, but being a mom can be completely frustrating and sometimes it seems that all the other moms have it all under control. Well GUESS WHAT?? They don't!! They are going crazy just like you are, but the only way you know that is by opening up to another mom or them opening up to you. After sharing stories with other moms who seemed like everything was great and learning they too were going nuts, I just thought, I AM NOT ALONE!!! When I know I am not alone, I feel better. I feel like I am not the only one going through this. I feel like I can talk to others without feeling shame. I feel like I have someone in my corner pulling for me and I am pulling for them. Someone is there now to help me when I need it.

I have always said that I wish more people would just open up (including myself) about what they are really feeling because it helps to lift any burdens you have and it helps others to stop trying to live up to this expectation that your life is suppose to be this way and this way only. You know that you have to have this type of car, job, life or whatever to be successful. I just wish people would stop pretending because it is really just putting us all in more of a mess than we are already in.

A friend of ours is a youth pastor at our church and one night at one of our youth gatherings he told the teens how he has a notebook that essentially is like a book of confession and that he actually has a couple of people in his life that are allowed to see what's in that notebook. I thought to myself, man that is scary, but man how powerful of a tool is that to fight sin. I mean think about that, if you had one how powerful would that be to have that notebook always keeping you accountable? As scary as that is to be that brutally honest and have a few people see it, I can only imagine how much you would grow as a Christian because of it. I'm not sure if I will do that, I mean I want to, but man.....to do that you need to be committed to being honest and vulnerable. I mentioned the idea to my husband the other day and said I wasn't sure if I would do it, but I feel that as my husband he should know when I'm struggling with things in my life. Whenever I talk to my husband about my relationship with Christ and how much better I want it to be, I feel soooooooooo much better. You would think that since he's my husband it would be easy to just open up about that, but I get anxiety about it. Not so much because he's my husband and he will see how flawed I am, but because I'm letting myself be vulnerable and that's hard to do. Of course every time I do talk to my husband it goes great and we talk more about the subject which leads to other topics and I think to myself, what was I so worried about? I even learn things that he's going through, which like I said before, makes me feel less alone and now I am even more connected with my husband and that sorry devil is just so mad about that lol.

Anyways, I'm kind of just rambling now, but if you've read my first entry you would know that I'm just here to express what I'm feeling and what's on my mind and I don't think about grammar when it comes to those things.

I just hope you get what I'm saying and if you are hiding sin and you think you are the only one struggling, you aren't!! Find someone you trust and just be open and let the weight of that burden go and FIGHT SIN!! Just because you are a Christian doesn't mean things get easier. As our youth pastor says, Christianity is a WAR, because everyday you are fighting and now that you are one of God's own, the devil will do all he can to mess up your relationship with God. Trust me, I know.

So I guess I will leave this post with a moment of confession. Of course since this is a public blog so I won't go into detail, but I will say that I am fighting the lie that everything in this world is better than God. That the creation is better than the CREATOR!! You may say how can you think that? It is so obvious that God is better than everything and I believe you, but it's very easy to feed into what the World says and believe what it deems at "success" instead of trusting in what The Lord and what He says is important. I'm sure there is someone out there who understands what I'm going through. Keep me in your prayers and I will keep you in mine.