Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen. James 5:16 NCV
A woman asked an interesting rhetorical question a few days ago. She didn’t expect an answer, but she was telling me about a friend who had just died, being diagnosed with aggressive stage four cancer just a week before his death. She said, “We all knew something was wrong with him, but he wouldn’t go to the doctor. He insisted for months it was just age and a virus – he wasn’t sick.” Then she asked the question that lingered in the air for a few minutes. “I wonder how many people die insisting to the last minute that they aren’t sick?”
That’s a good question. An even more significant question is, “How many people live in a terminal state of emotional, mental, relational, spiritual sickness without choosing to get well?”
The statistics would likely astound the most pessimistic person. We have many reasons we choose not to address the trauma, the habits, hurts, hangups, and sins done to us and by us.
It’s hard. Much of the time we deny we’re as sick and handicapped as we are. We don’t want to own that we are missing out on real life. Very often we blame people, situations, and events beyond our control for the shape we are in. But no one ever blames their way into a better future.
If you want to choose healing, you must own that you ARE sick and own your part of it. We must pause and own the mess we have made and allowed. But we don’t want to do that. We would rather tell a story about the wrong that was done to us, how unfair life is, and even God –why would He allow this? But your best bet for healing is to own that you are sick and that some of it is your responsibility. Fully own it. It is in us from the very beginning. We love our unfair story. It’s in our DNA. It goes back to Adam and Eve. Remember them? They mutually disobeyed God and walked right into a screwed-up future. Did they take any responsibility? Nope. They blamed each other, the Serpent (the Devil), and even God for the mess they were in.
The truth is, until you own the fact that you need healing, that you are in a mess, and fully own your part of the responsibility for where you are, you will drag your sickness into your future and
compromise your relationships and all your dreams. Blame enables us to smuggle our sickness and dysfunction into our own future with devastating results. However, realizing that you are not healthy and owning your part of the responsibility for where you are allows you to have clarity to make decisions with God that will lead you to health and wholeness. As blame leaves, your emotional turmoil dissipates, your inner temperature drops, and good decisions follow.
- Own it to God, yourself, and accountable people. Specifically own your poor decisions. Begin working in reality with God for your new healthy future.