Tag Archives: James 5:16

Confess Your Sins

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Discipleship Devotional Study Guide - Therefore - James 5:16 - Confess Your Sins - Growing As Disciples

Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – Therefore – James 5:16 – Confess Your Sins – Growing As Disciples

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16 (NIV)

Powerful Prayers

Are you willing to admit your faults? What do you do when you know that have done something wrong? Do you try to hide what you have done? Do you live in denial that you have a fault that you must admit? Do you ignore me when I am prompting you to confess your sin to someone else? I have had a hard time admitting my faults. I have pretended that I haven’t done anything wrong. I have ignored your prompting to confess my sin to another person. Do you know why this is not good? I can think of a few reasons why it is mistake to fail to admit my faults and confess my sins. I’m listening.

You want me to live in close relationships with others. Yes, I do. As I live in close relationships with others I will have an opportunity to minister to them. Yes, you will. If I sin against someone and don’t admit my faults and confess my sins I will lose any opportunity I might have had to minister to others. That’s right. As I live in close relationships with others we will be able to keep each other accountable and spur each other on as we confess and admit our faults and sins to each other. Yes, that’s also true. Hiding my faults and failing to confess my sins will hinder my ability to bear fruit for your kingdom and bring glory to your name. Yes, it will.

What else? You expect me to admit my faults and confess my sins. Yes, I do. It is your command. Yes, it is. You paid for my sins on the cross. You made it possible so I could be forgiven of my sin and cleansed of all my unrighteousness. Yes, I did. Failing to admit my faults and confess my sins seems like a rejection of all that you have done for me. You are not pleased when I hide my faults and fail to confess my sins. That’s right. I will have very little desire to draw near to you in prayer when I am living with unconfessed sin. You want me to draw near to you to admit my faults and confess my sin as part of my prayers to you. Yes, I do. Living forgiven of my sin and cleansed of all my unrighteousness is the ground on which powerful prayers can be prayed and heard and answered. Yes, It is.  

What else? You want me to receive all that you have for me. You want me to receive your healing. Yes, I do. Your healing will come into my life as I admit my faults and confess my sin to you and others. Yes, it will. Will you make admitting your faults and confessing your sin a regular everyday practice in your life? Yes Lord, I will.

Lord, I am a sinner. I have sinned. I will sin. I will make it my common everyday practice to admit my faults and confess my sins both to you and to others. Forgive me. Cleanse me. Heal me. Make me able to pray powerful prayers that you will hear and answer. Amen

For today’s complete 4 page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide click here:

Therefore – James 5-16 – Confess Your Sins – 4 Page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide

Please consider sharing these devotionals with others through the social media you use.

Individual users may save the Discipleship Devotional Study Guide to their desktop for private use. All the blanks in the study guides are fields that allow typed responses. To use the fields on the study guide you may need to open the guide with a free version of adobe reader.

By Jon Ulrich © All rights reserved                   Copying not permitted                      www.GrowingAsDisciples.com

So That You May Be Healed

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Discipleship Devotional Study Guide - So That - James 5:16 - So That You May Be Healed- Growing As Disciples

Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – So That – James 5:16 – So That You May Be Healed- Growing As Disciples

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  James 5:16 (NIV)

Powerful And Effective

Do you want to be able to pray prayers that are powerful and effective? Do you want to pray prayers that I will hear and answer? Do you want to pray prayers that will bring healing to others and yourself? Yes of course, I want to pray powerful and effective prayers. I really do want to pray prayers that you will hear and answer. I want to pray healing for others and for myself. How can I pray these kinds of prayers? That is a very good question.

One thing is necessary if you want to pray prayers that are powerful and effective. One thing is required if you want to pray prayers that I will hear and answer. What one thing is necessary? You must hear from me. I will give you the prayers that I want you to pray. You must pray prayers that are according to my will. You must pray prayers that are according to my purposes and my plans.

How will I ever be able to hear from you? How will I be able to know if you have given me a prayer to pray? What will hinder you from hearing from me? Sin will hinder me from hearing from you. If I am living in sin I will have a very difficult time hearing from you. That’s right. I will also have a very hard time hearing from you if I have not confessed my sins to you. Why is that? When I know that I am either living in sin or not confessing my sins I am likely to be distant from you. Instead of drawing near to you I am more likely to want to hide from you. You’re right again. So, if you want to hear from me what will you do? I will both leave sin behind and confess my sins to you. You will draw near to me to confess your sins to me? Yes, I will. You will draw near to me as you leave sin behind? Yes, I will. Then you will hear from me.  There is more that you want to tell me, isn’t there? Yes, I have one more question for you.

What will help you to hear from me? We just talked about what would hinder me from hearing from you. Yes, we did. This is other half of the answer to your questions. What were my questions? How will you ever be able to hear from me? How will you be able to know if I have given you a prayer to pray? I don’t know the answer to your question. Oh, I’m sure that you do know the answer. I don’t think so. What would you do if you desperately wanted to hear from me? I would seek you with all my heart. I wouldn’t give up. I wouldn’t let up. I would be urgent. I would be unrelenting. I would be insistent and persistent. You know what that sounds like to me? I’m not sure. It sounds like the answer to my question. Really? Yes, really. Seek me with all your heart. Don’t give up. Don’t let up. Be urgent and unrelenting. Be insistent and persistent and you will certainly hear from me. You will know that I have given you prayers to pray. You will know that you are praying powerful prayers that I will hear and answer. Then that is exactly what I will do. That will be very good. 

Lord, I will not try to cover up or hide from my sins. I will confess all my sins to you and to any one I have sinned against. I don’t want anything to get in the way and hinder my prayers. I want to be able to pray powerful prayers that you will hear and answer.  Amen

For today’s complete 4 page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide click here:

So That – James 5-16 – You May Be Healed – 4 Page Discipleship Devotional Study Guide

Please consider sharing these devotionals with others through the social media you use.

Individual users may save the Discipleship Devotional Study Guide to their desktop for private use. All the blanks in the study guides are fields that allow typed responses. To use the fields on the study guide you may need to open the guide with a free version of adobe reader.

By Jon Ulrich © All rights reserved                   Copying not permitted                      www.GrowingAsDisciples.com