“Confess your trespasses (sins) to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” ~James 5:16.

These are my thoughts and reflections on the above Bible Passage: I believe that what God is trying to teach us in James 5:16 is this: He wants us to come to Him humbly and boldly to confess our sins to Him and to one another, so that we can pray with each other and for each other and for all of our separate needs and desires, so that we can be healed from whatever it is that might be holding us back from something that The Lord desperately needs us to do for Him and with Him.  He doesn’t want us to hold back anymore, He wants us to go out of our comfort zones and do all of this for Him whatever this particular thing may be.  He needs us to be persistent with Him for all of our prayer needs; This is so that He can mold us and make us into something more beautiful than we currently are.  For example, we are each on the verge of something big and we may not know what that is at the moment, but we do know and feel lead to pray to God about this, “Next Big Thing” that is about to take place in each of our lives.  Whatever it is, we know that it’s going to be great because God has already carefully planned it out and He knows exactly when He wants it to actually start happening in our lives.

When it is the appointed time, God will obey His Father and He will make it so.  The question here is this: Are you fully ready to listen and to obey His commands? I sure am! I can’t wait to see what God has planned next for me! At this point in time though, I’m just waiting on The Lord to tell me what He needs me to do next for His Kingdom.  “Lord, I’m guilty of not praying as much as I used too, and I’m asking for your forgiveness and understanding on this subject, Lord, I’m not perfect, I’m far from it, I’m just human and we still make mistakes.  Please come into my life and into my heart and change me and make me into a new creation in and through you, Lord.  Lord, only You can change me and nobody else can.  Lord, I pray, need, and want to have a closer relationship with you, please make this so, Lord.  Thank You, Lord, I love You, in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

I think that at some point in our lives, we all need healing and restoration, and only The Lord, His Word, and the power of prayer can make this happen.  But first, we need to let go and give up all of our control to The One that is Higher than us, and this is even before anything else can start to take place in each of our personal lives and spiritual lives as well.  The sooner that we give it all up, the better off we’ll all be.  Can I get an Amen? Thank You, Lord! Now, let’s move on from here and let God show us what to do next in our relationships with Him.  Before I conclude this entry let me ask each of you to pray and to ask God what is needed to make these changes happen in both of your spiritual, and personal lives, so that He will be able to turn each of these imperfections into something beautiful to help Him to grow and to further His Eternal Kingdom.  As soon as you know what needs to be changed, I ask that you will bring to Him your prayers of praise and thanksgiving because in all honesty, that is all that He asks of us to do for Him.

When you finish all of that, I’m going to encourage each one of you to try to help one another to change these things for the better and to just grow closer to Him because once again that is all He ever wants us to do through Him and with Him.  He hears our prayers and He will make them happen, but it has to be all in His good timing.  The more time that you spend with God the much happier and more content that you’ll be because He will speak and reveal to you what His plan is for your own lives.  But as I’ve said before, it Has to be in His perfect timing, and not on our timing.  We have to be patient and wait on The Lord because that is what the Bible says and as Christians we must obey His Law and not on our own laws.  He has spiritual gifts to give you, and He wants you to use them for His good.  Depending on how well you use these God-given gifts, they will be your gift that you will be giving back to The Lord ten-fold, and He will reward you in the end.

I would like to close this entry by saying this: Please do not hold back anything from The Lord because He already knows what you are going to ask Him before you just come out and say it to Him.  “Do not be afraid, for He is always with us.”  He’s not mad at you, He loves you and He always wants what is best for us, and that’s all.  “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.” Amen and praise The Lord!