Blog – 3-8-17
Admitting you’re wrong is hard. Admitting you’re wrong to someone else is excruciating!
Last week we looked at Step 4 where we make a list of our sins. Step 5 asks us to take that list and go one step further…tell it to someone else. It reads, “We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16
Openly confessing our faults to ourselves, to God and to someone we trust is truly transformational. And biblical. I remember this step very clearly, just like Step 4, because it was so hard. It was one thing to write my junk down, but then to have to tell somebody else my EXACT sins…No way!
I dreaded it.
I made excuse after excuse for why I couldn’t do it.
I told myself I could skip over this step, it wasn’t that important.
But it kept gnawing at me until I finally bit the bullet and set up an appointment with my pastor. I needed to get this thing over with.
I went into his office with a nervous knot in my stomach and hands clammy with fear. What would he think of me when he heard my list? Would he look at me differently? Would he see me as a phony, pretending to have it all together when I really didn’t?
I somehow trusted the process, trusted the wisdom in completing ALL the steps, not just the ones I liked, and I went for it. I told him everything. I held nothing back. I laid my soul bare before another human being.
And guess what. I felt awesome when I was done! It was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I could breathe deeply again. The things that had grown to be so enormous in my mind were put in perspective. The hold they had on me was broken. I was human. I needed grace, just like everyone else.
As the line in our bridge says, “Freedom was waiting!”
One thing I’ve learned along the way is true growth is never easy. It never happens automatically. It always requires effort on our part. And the harder the effort, the bigger the growth.
Sharing the deepest, darkest parts of our souls with someone else is intimidating, it’s extremely hard, but freedom is waiting for us when we do. God shows up in the middle of it and becomes our life changer!
Another verse that goes with this step really says it all:
“Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires.” Matthew 5:6
Be brave! Be bold! Do the hard stuff so you can get to the freedom waiting for you.
Get rid of your junk and let God be your Life Changer!
Be My Life Changer Words and music by Jill Miller and Rachel Barrentine © 2016
VERSE There’s a change you want to make There are chains you want to break I surrender to Your Spirit, I won’t hide behind my old ways Prepare my heart, God I need Your help, I’m at the end, the end of myself And It’s time to do something different with the cards I’ve been dealt
CHORUS Happy are those who put You first Seek Your truth, hunger and thirst Be my life-changer Happy are those whose greatest desire Is to do everything You require Be my life-changer
VERSE 2 With every step, with every mile Through every tear, through every trial Get me ready, keep me steady, with a faith like a child
CHORUS
BRIDGE Freedom is calling, freedom is waiting Freedom is here, it’s mine for the taking (2x) Whatever your Spirit leads me to do I will obey and see it through
CHORUS
Hugs and love,
Jill