Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16

Gleason Archer Jr. once told about a young woman who was new to following Jesus. She didn’t realize yet that while Christians agreed that sins need to be confessed, it rarely ever happened outside of silent prayer.

This young woman surprised a minister one day by showing up at his office with a list of sins that she hadn’t wanted anyone to know about. But upon reading “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed,” in James 5:16, she made an appointment.

Upon arrival, says Archer, “She recited her long and detailed list. The minister realized that he was hearing something all too rare in the church today. When the young woman came to the end of the litany of her sins, the minister took the list from her and tore it to pieces. He said while tearing the pages, ‘The blood of Christ has cleansed you of all your sin.’ Then what did he say? He said something that demonstrated he understood her sin from his own personal experience. He said, ‘Pray for me, a fellow sinner.'”[1]

The freedom of confession is illustrated by the children’s book, Arlo and the Great Big Cover-Up. After drawing on his bedroom walls, little Arlo frantically tries to hide what he’s done and crawls under the bed. Later, after being led through confession by his mom (who cleans off the wall), Arlo says, “Thank you for cleaning up my mess!” “You’re welcome,” says his mom, “Cleaned up is always much, much better than covered up!”[2]

Yes, “Confess and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

 

[1] Archer, Gleason. “The Pain and Beauty of Confession.” Ligonier Ministries, 1 Mar. 2005, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/pain-and-beauty-confession.

[2] Howard, Betsy Childs. Arlo and the Great Big Cover-Up. YouTube, 30 June 2020, https://youtu.be/W56CXRxC3OE. Accessed 1 Aug. 2022.