“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.”
James 1:2-3 (MSG)
If you could wear a warning label, what would it say?
“Warning: Contents Under Pressure” would be on my label. I think we are all under pressure. Work and family are some of the daily stressors. Worry, fear and guilt can be added to the list for me.
I try to be in control of my emotions and I push them down or away. I don’t want them to get the better of me.
The feelings all pile up in a boiling, simmering mess inside. My head will hurt and I feel it in my gut. Know the feeling?
David had the same problem.
“When I kept quiet about my sin, my bones wasted away from crying all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as in the hot summer. I told my sin to You. I did not hide my wrong-doing. I said, ‘I will tell my sins to the Lord.’ And You forgave the guilt of my sin.”
Psalm 32:3-5(NLV)
I need to work on confession. My prayer needs and wants get in the way of confessing.
“Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.”
Nehemiah 9:2-3(NIV)
Keeping all the stuff inside is a sin because I am telling myself that I am greater than God. Maybe not literally, but by not getting rid of it and thinking I can handle it. I put myself before Him.
“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.”
Isaiah 59:1
Paul tells us in Romans
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Romans 3:23 (NIV)
If I confess and ask him to take away the stress and the mess, He will answer my prayers. Look again at Psalm 32:
“So let all who are God-like pray to You while You may be found, because in the floods of much water, they will not touch him. You are my hiding place. You keep me safe from trouble. All around me are your songs of being made free.
I will show you and teach you in the way you should go. I will tell you what to do with My eye upon you. Do not be like the horse or the donkey which have no understanding. They must be made to work by using bits and leather ropes or they will not come to you. Many are the sorrows of the sinful. But loving-kindness will be all around the man who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord and be full of joy, you who are right with God! Sing for joy all you who are pure in heart!”
Psalm 32:6-11 (NIV)
Let’s work on making confession a part of our prayers and remember we need God. We can’t handle it alone.
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