Where Can We Find Healing?

But what's the promise? If we do church according to God's will, he says there's healing for the weary soul, for the sick soul, the dry soul, the one who's been destroyed. So we confess these sins to each other and we pray for each other, and we sit back and we do this: we believe that God's word will do what God promised he would do. I find a lot of comfort in that. Many, many, many of you sit in my office and we work through all kinds of heartache and pain and suffering. You know what is the greatest comfort I take at times? I just pray for you. All right, Lord, I got nothing. They're a mess. I'm a mess. And you're powerful. Will you please come heal us? And he doesn't mean physically. He means our soul, our spirit, because our spirit is at war with our flesh. And so my encouragement to us as a congregation is that we can take James's clear instructions throughout his entire letter- that letter, that as we gather, we need to be wary of what we say to one another; the decisions that we make. I will tell you, there is no sin you can commit that does not affect somebody else. I've thought about it for a long time. Every sin we commit needs to be confessed for this reason: it affects somebody. Now, some of you're sitting here like, "Wait a minute. You want us to confess like confess, confess? I mean, not like I sped this week, I, uh, my alarm went off at six and I got up at 6:05. I'm so lazy. Can you guys pray for me? You want me to like, to confess? Confess?" Well, he says, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you might be healed." It's a wonderful promise. You can keep doing what you're doing, or you can listen to James, and at least try it. What's so great about men's and women's Bible studies is it's this amazing opportunity for you to do this. It's not pretty. It's not clean. It's filthy. You want to know why? Sin is involved with sinners. It's just a mess. But where is your hope found? After you confess your sin, guess what James doesn't say? Hey, why don't you try harder next time? He says rely on a power outside of yourself. This brings me a lot of hope, church. I hope it brings you a lot of hope. The righteousness I rely on that gives power and prayer is the righteousness that was given to me by Christ. I'm confident that's what James means. Everyday Grace 057