Secrets and Regrets

Your secrets and regrets

Are keeping you from going very far

And you can't let all this get you down

And keep you living in the dark

I don't know if any of you have heard this song by Pillar, but it has so much truth to it. You can apply this to so many different areas in life--the lesson here is transparency. God has been teaching me about this all semester--it just keeps coming up. I feel like Christians have lost the raw truth of Christ and are stuck in the rut of trying to master a holy outward appearance while neglecting the inside.

James 5:16 says "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.

Colossians 3:13 says "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

1 Thessalonians 5:11-"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are

doing."

1 Peter 1:22- "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."

How can we expect to find healing, true friendship love, and encouragement when we never share the truth with anyone. Sisters that's what best friends are for. We are all weak. We all sin (Romans 3:23.) We all need help, truth, and encouragement. But if you don't open up you will never find that freedom and peace.

Be careful to understand that I am not advocating sharing your deepest secrets with all of Times Square. I am however recommending that you have at least one or two strong Christian women in your life whom you can pour into and receive godly wisdom from.

Do you have a dark past? One of pain, guilt, and shame? Does that thing you did way back when haunt you every day of your life? Does the devil play mind games with you over this sin still? Perhaps it's your family life. Maybe it's a sickness you are embarrassed about. Or maybe it is sexual sin that you are too ashamed to share with other Christians.

Whatever it is, you need to find a confidant and share that with them. But why would you go through this humility?

1. Because it's biblical! The list of verses above should have already pointed that out to you. We are social creatures created to interact and love one another (Gen 2:18.) By being fake who are your friends and family actually loving? A nobody? True friends and true family are going to love you know matter what you have done. So come clean and confess your secrets to them.
2. Prayer changes things! The power of prayer is obvious, amazing, and supernatural. Prayer can heal! When my friends pray over me and for me I can instantly feel a peace come over my soul. God wants us to pray for one another! This is one of the ways he works! But girl, how can you receive the awesome blessings of heartfelt prayer from other people if you don't tell them what's going on?
3. Encouragement. When my friends come to me with a problem I immediately try to offer them some encouragement, a relevant bible verse, and prayer. Often times when I am doing my quiet time in the following week I will find other verses that apply to their situation. When I send these to my friends, more often than not, it is exactly what they needed to hear from God. I say this because if my friends didn't open up to me I couldn't encourage them and give them the messages from God they needed to hear.

I know it's super hard and super humiliating to open up and share dissapointments, pain, and failures with the people you love. But you must defeat these lies from the devil and hold tightly to God's promises of freedom, courage, and healing. By doing this you will also see your relationships become stronger and deeper between you and your friends.

Love you and praying for you,

Haley Marie