The Scariest Verse in the Bible
By Laurie Campbell on September 24th, 2018
Life is messy, and kids know that better than anyone. Whether it’s building a tree fort, making a mud pie, or jumping in the puddles after it rains, children know it’s okay to show that they’re messy. Somewhere along the way we lose that sense of freedom and begin to hide our mess, so that others only see what we want them to see, but Jesus never meant for us to live in isolation from others. Check out what Laurie Campbell, a mother of five, has to say about the beauty in being vulnerable.
James 5:16 Message
“Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.” The scary part is that first line “Confess your sins to each other…”
That means we have to be transparent! Show our weaknesses, BE vulnerable.
In the last month, I have heard two different comments that both made my heart ache for different reasons. The first was a comment by a Christian, “I felt like I was the only one who questioned if I was hearing God!” It was wonderful that it was a relief to this person that she wasn’t alone in this walk, but at the same time, it’s sad that she felt that there was no one that she could connect with. She saw people who she thought had it all together and never struggled and so she felt she could never ‘measure up’. She didn’t have a ‘Community’ to live life and connect with.
The second was a comment about a Christian businessman, “He’s a Christian? He preys on me all week and then he prays for me on Sunday?” This, sadly, is how many people in the world see Christians, as hypocrites! This truly makes my heart ache, as I’m sure it does the same to God. So how do we change this?
How do we change both of these perspectives? The perspective that many Christians feel that they don’t ‘measure up’ and the perspective that many in the world feel that most Christians are just ‘hypocrites’. James 5:16 — Transparency! When we take the scariest verse in the Bible, confess our sins, AND pray for each other then we can live together whole and healed!
People need to see the REAL you! Here’s why:
People admire your strengths, but they identify with your weaknesses.
Think about it. You do this. You hear your favorite speaker and take notes that chronicle every insight. But when he starts to share about the time he failed, and his anger got him kicked out of his daughter’s basketball game, how he had a little too much to drink the other night, or how he was prideful at work when he felt threatened by a coworker, suddenly you identify with your hero on an emotional level.
You don’t just admire him anymore, you identify with him. He becomes human. And you suddenly feel like there’s hope for you. If you don’t talk about your weaknesses, you are missing a huge opportunity for people in ‘your community’ not just to connect with you, but to find hope in their own lives.
If we don’t look like the same person on Sunday that we do all week long, then no one will identify with us and instead we may push people away from Christ! We need to show people that ‘WE ARE MESSY’! We are NOT perfect! We are a work in progress!
BUT, no one will ever know that if we aren’t transparent with them. When we lash out at someone at work, and we realize that we were wrong, we NEED to go back to them and apologize. We need to take the time to share whatever we are going through, not as an excuse, but to show that person that we also are growing in Christ. We are a mess on our own, but Christ is perfect and we are only worthy because of Him. BUT, we can’t just stop with transparency! There is another part to that scariest verse in the Bible, “and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.”
So, we should spend more time praying for each other “that we may be healed” than just sharing what it is we are struggling with. There are two parts to what this verse is asking us to do: BE transparent, but don’t leave yourself in that state, make war against sin.
When the world sees us, they should not only see us acknowledging our sin, but they should also see us acknowledging our Savior and praising God for victory over our previous struggles. We are foolish in this because we will either never share our struggles with others OR we come into the same small group for two years and talk about our struggles; all the while having our friends sympathize with us and commend our honesty and transparency. Yet, two years have gone with no victory over the sin because we were so stuck on being transparent. Don’t be either of those!
The gospel has set us free to be weak yes, but it has also given us freedom from the bondage of sin. We have been saved from guilt and shame, but we are supposed to have glorious fellowship with our Savior; and that fellowship is broken by sin. We have been set free by the gospel to hate our sin, not sulk in it. The gospel leaves no room for continuous sin in our lives. As we open up about our struggles, the body of Christ is supposed to pray for us and help us fight. It’s time to take the next step, Church! We were not called to boast in our sin, but we are called to boast in Our Savior!
Philippians 1:6 Message
“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.”
May you find your vulnerability in Christ,
Laurie Campbell
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