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. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again. - James 5:16-17 (MSG)
James’ reminder for us to confess to and pray for each other comes within the broader context of God’s people patiently enduring together through difficult times. Whether suffering famine, sickness, injustice or even the consequences of our own sins, we’re told to confess (i.e., verbalize, express, make known, emote, pick a word, etc.) pray for one another, and then wait for the ‘rain’ to come.
Therefore…
We need to CONFESS to one another.
It is a gift of grace, to bear our souls, to unburden our hearts, to confess our pain, our frustrations, and yes, our sins to one another.
We need to LISTEN with great patience and HEARD by a fellow traveller.
A humble confession is a gift to be received from another. It may be painful to articulate. It may be painful to listen. And it may be even more painful to simply listen without judging, giving ‘good’ advice, or doing anything rather than just listen… Being the ears of Jesus in that moment, praying silently in our hearts, as our true Confessor in heaven is listening and interceding for us.
And we need to throw our confession INTO THE FIRE, where our Father refines, cleanses, burns away, and makes stronger. This is our soul’s surrender, our acceptable worship, and our declaration of hope… Because our God IS a consuming fire.
So we’re going to have a bonfire.
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IN PREPARATION…
• Prepare a personal confession… Write down your burden, your pain, your hope, and/or sin. Try to express yourself in first-person. Don’t preach. Don’t lecture. (God doesn’t need a lecture.) Be as honest as you want. Then bring it with you on the night.
• On the night of, we’ll begin with some some worship songs, then take turns reading our confessions and throwing them in the fire.
• No judgement. No shame. No offering advice. No ‘preach-praying.’ We will simply confess, listen, pray and then worship some more.
• If you’re unable to join on the night-of, you’re welcome to give your confession to someone who will be there to read it for you. You can make it anonymous if you like. Whatever you’re comfortable with.
• Anyone’s welcome.