Skip to main content

Are You Ready For An Episode of Spiritual Hoarders?


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. (James 5:16)

          Part of getting ready for a new year is dealing with the old. Most of us end up with at least a few regrets, or a few strained relationships by the end of the year. We know we shouldn’t have done this, or said that. What may seem worse is not what we have done, but what has been done to us. The end of 2017 is a great time to deal with those sins that are separating us from God or from one another. It may take asking forgiveness. It may require forgiving. The point is to enter 2018 without things hanging over our heads.
          It’s best to do this as soon as it happens, but I’m I, and you are you, and chances are we not only haven’t done it as it happened, or even the day it happened. Chances are there are things that have piled up. We didn’t mean to. We put a sin on our desk, planning to deal with it soon. Then there were four or five on the desk and we needed the desk, so we put them on a shelf. Others ended up on the floor by the door. The next thing we know, someone is suggesting our lives for an episode of spiritual Hoarders.
           I’m not suggesting that you should provide a list of your particular sins in the comments, but there is power in confessing to someone. It may be a paradox, but claiming your sin can take its power over you away. It can help you stop pretending. It can be the means of bringing you back together with the one that the sin separated you from.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more