Confessing your feelings can be scary in the most ideal circumstances. Confessing your sins is worse. Sin brings shame, guilt, anxiety, sadness, fear, and pain. These are the portions of our lives that we desperately want to stuff down. The darkness that resides inside of us that we don’t want anyone to see. People may not see these parts of us, but God does. He knows every hair on our head, every ounce of our heart. God knows our innermost thoughts and everything we try to hide. Why is it that when we are the most ashamed, fearful, anxious, and unhappy, we hide ourselves from God. We push ourselves away. We see ourselves as less than and unworthy. We run from the one who can make us whole again, who washes us clean as snow. God doesn’t want us to run from Him when we make mistakes. He wants us to run towards Him for comfort, forgiveness, and peace. The way we gain this peace is through confession. We are told that we should confess our sins to one another so that we may be healed (James 5:16). Confessing out loud is intimidating. We are afraid that we are opening ourselves up to judgment from others and rejection from our church family. But, what if we find the opposite? Healing, compassion, love, mercy, kindness? All of these things can be given to us from God, but also from our church, who accept us with open arms and prayerful intercession because of their love for us. Tonight, I attended a prayer night at our church. I attended with the intention of being there for others as a member of the prayer team. However, I found that I needed healing, too. I found myself confessing my sins to another member of our team. At first, I was ashamed and afraid of how others would see me, but then I realized that if I was not judging others, then why would I assume I was being judged? Everyone was there for the same reason. We all needed healing, prayer, compassion, and forgiveness. I was forgiven and anointed with oil. I gave myself over to God for help and to relinquish all hold to him. The more I give myself to God, the more temptation I have. The more Satan attacks, the more I need God. The Lord is my strength. He is my rock and my fortress. I pray that God will bless all of you.