Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16, KJV)
My heart/mind felt impressed to start this thread. Perhaps it is God's will, but it may very well be of my own desire. I wanted an open place to confess my sins and express my thoughts, somewhere I can open myself up without judgement. Somewhere I can also let others know that they're probably not the only one going through something that's difficult to share with others. So here I will confess my sins, in the hopes that I will offer and be offered spiritual encouragement. We all like to maintain the image of the good Christian but the truth is most of us have so much going on under the surface. Lesson 11 said it perfectly:
“A long preparatory process, unknown to the world, goes on in the heart before the Christian commits open sin. The mind does not come down at once from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic. By beholding we become changed. By the indulgence of impure thoughts man can so educate his mind that sin which he once loathed will become pleasant to him.” - Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets,p. 459.
If we were truly the family we're supposed to be, then there would be no apprehension of confessing our sins one to another. But we're not, and we know what to expect when we disclose our indiscretions and give people a glimpse of our fallible nature ... looks of disdain and gossip. People slowly and silently draw back from you because their image of you has changed – you are no longer the good Christian they thought you were ... all the while to your face they say they are praying for you. Are we not all in this struggle together?
That being said ... here is my first sin and other thoughts:
Are you ready to die? I know I'm not. Which means to me that I'm still holding onto things in this world, whether they be material or immaterial. There are things I want to accomplish/do before I have to leave this life ... finish school, find a job and start a family. It may not seem that these are bad things to want or look forward to, and it's hard to prepare myself for the fact that these things I have wanted my whole life may not come to pass. But I should be content if they don't, I should be okay because God alone is to be my joy. I should not want after anything else. But yet I do. I want to get to the point where heaven alone is my sole priority. Whether it requires that I forsake my wants entirely, or that I still want them but will not completely fall apart if they don't happen for me. Giving up the world is difficult, and even just when you think you have, you realise there's still so much of it entwined into your life.
They say that when you love the Lord, it is a joy to keep His commandments. It makes me wonder then if the reverse is true. If I don't keep God's commandments, I don't love Him. How many of you have no trouble whatsoever keeping God's commandments? Do you then resort to questioning your Love for God? I do. But I don't go to the extreme and start thinking “I hate the Lord”, I just think I don't love Him enough, or at least not the way He deserves to be loved. But why don't I love Him enough? Is it my faith that needs strengthening or perhaps I'm in need of something else?
We live in this overstimulated society. So much so to the point where it's difficult to understand or see the small mercies that God grants us, and it also becomes difficult not to be bored by church or the hymns or the seemingly hour-long prayers and neverending sermons. I'm not saying this applies to every single one of us, just to those who feel I am speaking to their concerns. I know some of us have no problems with any of these things, but for those of us who do, this is for you. These are the things I want, but more so need, to get out of my life, everything that overstimulates me.
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16, KJV)
My heart/mind felt impressed to start this thread. Perhaps it is God's will, but it may very well be of my own desire. I wanted an open place to confess my sins and express my thoughts, somewhere I can open myself up without judgement. Somewhere I can also let others know that they're probably not the only one going through something that's difficult to share with others. So here I will confess my sins, in the hopes that I will offer and be offered spiritual encouragement. We all like to maintain the image of the good Christian but the truth is most of us have so much going on under the surface. Lesson 11 said it perfectly:
“A long preparatory process, unknown to the world, goes on in the heart before the Christian commits open sin. The mind does not come down at once from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic. By beholding we become changed. By the indulgence of impure thoughts man can so educate his mind that sin which he once loathed will become pleasant to him.” - Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 459.
If we were truly the family we're supposed to be, then there would be no apprehension of confessing our sins one to another. But we're not, and we know what to expect when we disclose our indiscretions and give people a glimpse of our fallible nature ... looks of disdain and gossip. People slowly and silently draw back from you because their image of you has changed – you are no longer the good Christian they thought you were ... all the while to your face they say they are praying for you. Are we not all in this struggle together?
That being said ... here is my first sin and other thoughts:
Are you ready to die? I know I'm not. Which means to me that I'm still holding onto things in this world, whether they be material or immaterial. There are things I want to accomplish/do before I have to leave this life ... finish school, find a job and start a family. It may not seem that these are bad things to want or look forward to, and it's hard to prepare myself for the fact that these things I have wanted my whole life may not come to pass. But I should be content if they don't, I should be okay because God alone is to be my joy. I should not want after anything else. But yet I do. I want to get to the point where heaven alone is my sole priority. Whether it requires that I forsake my wants entirely, or that I still want them but will not completely fall apart if they don't happen for me. Giving up the world is difficult, and even just when you think you have, you realise there's still so much of it entwined into your life.
They say that when you love the Lord, it is a joy to keep His commandments. It makes me wonder then if the reverse is true. If I don't keep God's commandments, I don't love Him. How many of you have no trouble whatsoever keeping God's commandments? Do you then resort to questioning your Love for God? I do. But I don't go to the extreme and start thinking “I hate the Lord”, I just think I don't love Him enough, or at least not the way He deserves to be loved. But why don't I love Him enough? Is it my faith that needs strengthening or perhaps I'm in need of something else?
We live in this overstimulated society. So much so to the point where it's difficult to understand or see the small mercies that God grants us, and it also becomes difficult not to be bored by church or the hymns or the seemingly hour-long prayers and neverending sermons. I'm not saying this applies to every single one of us, just to those who feel I am speaking to their concerns. I know some of us have no problems with any of these things, but for those of us who do, this is for you. These are the things I want, but more so need, to get out of my life, everything that overstimulates me.