James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Before accepting Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our
sins separated us from God until we were washed clean by the precious blood of
Jesus. After we place our faith and trust in Christ Jesus and become a part of
Christianity, we become forgiven of our sins. However, we will still battle
with sin as long as we are in this earthly life (1 John 1:10). Although we have
become Christians, we still sin, and our sin is what separates us from God, not
that we lose our salvation, but our sin is what hinders and obstructs our
spiritual growth.
As Christians, we have the precarious tendency to ignore
our sins; we say to ourselves I should not be involved in this. Or we attempt
to mask our sin because we believe we are alone. We live in fear of being
condemned by other Christian brothers and sisters. Consequently, we attempt to
cover up our sins and suffer alone in symbolic darkness, unwilling to allow our
sins to come out into the light. Some Christians falsely believe if their good
works or deeds outnumber their evil acts, they will go to heaven. On the
outside, this person may appear as a good Christian; however, inwardly, they
are a graveyard. To apply one of Jesus' analogies (Matthew 23:25-26),
We cannot ignore, cover-up, or excuse our sin because it
creates a division between God and us, and it sabotages every other effort we
make at growing spiritually. Regardless of how much or how often we pray, read,
and focus on God's Holy Word, attend church services, or serve others, our
spiritual growth will always be affected by our sins. Sin also stifles the Holy
Spirit's leading, guiding, and direction, his power at work in our lives, and
his power to help us become more Christlike. If we continue living spiritually
immature and ineffectual lives, never accepting the fullness of what God is
offering us. We must ask ourselves, is some sin blocking God's work in my life?
The longer we conceal sin, the more it thrives in our
lives; it grows deeper roots and becomes more embedded, choking the life of God
within us. In some states in the southern part of our country, there are
scrounging vines that grow up along the trunk of trees and choke the life out
of the tree. The fix is simple: cut the vines at their base, and the entire
vine will eventually die out. God's solution to sin is the performance of
confession that cuts the vine of sin at its base and then God will restore us
to a right relationship with him.
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