Open Sesame

I really enjoy Joyce Meyer and her "tell it like it really is" delivery. She admits openly the things that most people keep in the dark. Why? According to Joyce, they are afraid that if they are open with someone about the way they feel, it will be used against them or told to someone else. To that, she says simply, "So what if they do?" It's between them and God, not you! Blabbermouths will be dealt with. BUT.....

James 5:16-17 gives us this truth...."therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

In Joyce's comment to that: "We'd get a lot more help if we'd be more open and stop trying to impress each other!"

Another golden one: "You are a human being. Stop trying to be Super Sister Christian!"
Yet another: "God adds his "super" to our natural, but we have to realize we are the natural"

For me, it's not that I want to appear impressive to others, but that sometimes I feel my burdens are my business to deal with and I don't require anyone else's input, opinion, help, or otherwise. We are taught to not complain or burden others with our problems by well-meaning people, but the Bible tells us to confess to other humans. Doing this in the right way reveals the darkness and replaces it with light, especially when done with love and without judgment. I think my struggle is that I think I should just take it to God and leave it there, yet maybe I could help someone else if I would be open about it.

God does not condemn, and neither should we condemn someone who admits something undesirable to us. We all have undesirable qualities or thoughts at some time because we are human. I would be shocked out of my socks if someone said to me, "oh, no, I never feel that way." Definitely not someone I would confide in at all. That must be Super Sister Christian who either lives on a cloud or in denial.

Christianity is not a sport, so it shouldn't be a competition either. God chooses which one of his kids get blessed first. Sometimes it won't be one of us no matter how many verses we memorize or how much we pray! Sometimes it will be the lady who just gave her heart to Jesus and still lives on the edge. Not our business! That's God's business. I think those things happen to keep us living humbly and not putting ourselves above others. Joyce referred to it as her jealousy problem. Once she confessed that she was jealous of someone and asked her husband to pray with her, she was released of that bondage. Who wants to admit they're jealous? Yet, guess what? We are sometimes!! One of many things we don't want to admit we experience. We all burp and pass gas too! Did ya know that??

I will spend more time on this verse for sure, but I think it speaks to me in that I am not at a point yet where I can be open-sesame until I trust you. However, trust is built by being open and sharing. I am fortunate that I have a few people in which I confide and do so trustfully. However, I know that a healthy church needs people who are open not just to their friends and family, but to their church family as well. I'm being open by saying I'm not totally there yet.
Divisions within a church can really shut the openness down. Who do you trust? What should you say? It really shouldn't be that way at all, but sometimes it is. You can almost see the division lines not only between people, but in families and churches and even businesses. We can't let that stop us from doing it anyway, can we? Doesn't God know better than we do?

Here it is again...


James 5:16-17 Therefore, CONFESS your sins to each other and PRAY for each other so that you may be HEALED. The prayer of a RIGHTEOUS man is POWERFUL and EFFECTIVE.