HEALING and WHOLE

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

James 5:16-18 (MSG)

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed

Ever have one of those meetings that you thought was going to be one thing and then it turns into something entirely different?

What I thought was going to be just a “catch up with a friend and mix in a little business get together” yesterday quickly morphed into something much more meaningful and profound.

My colleague is a leader in the addiction, testing and now soon to be treatment arenas.  He is an innovator, an entrepreneur, and a tireless champion for the challenged.

Yet today, he was just my friend; my friend who was more tired than tireless and feeling a little more inert that innovative.  This “business” of recovery can wear you out.  The need is so great and it is relentless as evidenced by the recent report that OHIO while being the 7^th largest state in the union, moved to number 1 in overdose death in 2015.  It can fatigue even the most forceful.

And that is why yesterday was mostly about a guy who needed to share his heart and allow GOD to do a little healing and refreshing for both of us.

That passage from James, especially in the way Peterson tees it up is a crucial truth for all believers; that when life, sin, hurt, pressure, or fatigue seek to make us “ill”, nothing improves those circumstances quite like a little honest confession and a little vulnerable transparency.

Sadly, today’s “church”, (that is us by the way, not the facilities) has become fearful of transparent and vulnerable interactions.  We fear judgment and ridicule. So, authenticity, vulnerability and confession are often replaced with secretiveness and isolation. 

Yet James makes it clear.

When we are willing to engage a culture of confession and honesty, we receive wholeness and healing.

You see my friend for all his vast success and prosperity, it was not until he dispelled the lies of isolation and embraced the healing of confession and authenticity that his fortune and favor started to bring him REAL JOY!

There is a wonderful saying in the recovery community that we are only as sick as our secrets.  And many of you who read OFH frequently know I am quick to share some of my challenges aka “sicknesses” in this forum; my battles with lust, insecurity, ogling, narcissism, etc.

Why?

Because I want wholeness and healing.

I lived and sometime regress into that secret and sick life and it is “not great” as my wife will say.

And no, maybe you are not saddled with so much sin today that you feel that it may take you out, but perhaps there is that pesky lie that you continue to allow creep back into your brain that could use a little confession and truth to dispel and disarm it.

The most profound thing my friend shared yesterday was that when he was able to honestly share his feeling about his challenges, his pressures, and his mis-perceptions he was finally able to identify their source and diffuse them for the lies that they were.  (the devil is a liar. He is the father of lies. John 8:44 ERV)

And then through that confession he secured the truth and we all know what happens when we secure the truth.  

It sets us free! (John 8:32)

So, the encouragement is clear today.  

Feeling less than whole?  Struggling with a secret or two that is keeping you sick? Feeling bound by all of it? 

Embrace a little vulnerability.

Find a trusted friend.

Confess and share.

Freedom, truth, wholeness, and healing are waiting.

"Few things accelerate the peace process as much as humble confession” 

adapted from Strobel

I love you all.

Have a blessed DAY!!

OPPORTUNITIES for HOPE