The Green Pastures

Openness in Confession

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” Proverbs 28:13

When I was learning the power of confession, I was hesitant to be fully open. My pastor at the time shared with me two things that revealed the safe mess of confession. Firstly, he shared a quote from a fellow pastor, “The mess that confession makes is so much safer than the fake comfort that sin makes”. I fell for that false comfort for far too long. When I went into the safe mess of confession, I never looked back. The other thing that the pastor shared was the point that every sin took the cross to redeem it. There is no sin too big to share, no sin too far to run back to confession and come back to Jesus. Find a trusted elder around you and go to them. I cannot put into words how impactful that was when I did it. It will be hard in the beginning, but as you go on, it will only get easier. You will feel the weight fall off as you confess. 

Openness to Others

“Therefore, confess our sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” James 5:16

Even after I was shown the greatness of confession to trusted pastors, I was yet to learn how to be open with friends and other people around me. The thought behind that lie was that maybe they would think less of me, or that I would lose relationships. However, after I was open and honest with them, it didn’t change how they saw me. Neither did we lose the relationship, rather, it was deepened. On top of that, I was relieved of a great burden: the burden to hold together the lie of being perfectly put together. There is a quote from a song that paints a great picture of this. It goes “The narrow road is hard and every mile is way too hard to walk it all while being overdressed”. Do not uselessly play dress up when the walk of life is wearing you down, especially when everybody has something they are hiding. I do want to give some clarification.  What I am not saying is to go around oversharing every detail to everyone. That should just be to wise, trusted counsel in your life. There is room for honesty and openness without it being too much. When you share, within what is wise, and not overshare, you can help others not to feel alone in their sins and circumstances.

Openness to God

“How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me” Psalm 13:1

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation].” Matthew 11:28

The psalms are full of the most honest prayers to God. I was always fearful to be honest in confession, not just with other people, but even in my confessions to God. I was made to believe that my feelings should make me feel guilty and that I could hide them from God. There is no reason to hide anything from God. Jesus took the old rugged cross to bare our sins. Do not sand down the rough edges of sins on your cross before you bare it to Christ. Jesus calls us to go to Him while we are weary and heavily burdened, not to wait until we rest up, polish our emotions, and then go to Him. God knows our raw emotion even better than we might, long before we take them to Him. When we have those raw emotions and doubts, the best place for them would be at the feet of Jesus. He is the only one who can do anything about them. Why do we effortlessly attempt to whittle our true feelings and doubts by ourselves and not give them to the one who went to the cross knowing every single one of them? Do not waste your time, but bring everything to God.