Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. —James 5:16
The book of James offers us a cluster of odd couples: confession/prayer; healing/ power; one anothers/one person. These pairings don’t match up.
Confession means to admit our sin, and sin always causes separation. Prayer requires intimacy. It seems they would work in opposition, not partnership. The need for healing carries an inherent weakness. Yet it is linked with the promise of powerful prayer. James mentions both collective prayer and the prayers of a single believer. Do our prayers have more power when we cry out alone or in a group? The answer is yes.
Crying out to God isn’t a math equation. But there are factors we can depend on, like confessing our sin, admitting our need and asking for healing, praying for others, and backing our prayers with righteous lives.
As it turns out, prayer and confession are the perfect pairing of our weakness and God’s strength.
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31-Day Cry Out! Challenge (ReviveOurHearts.com, 2020)
Scripture taken from The CSB
Make it Personal
Pray for God to reveal all areas of sin in your life and heart, then ask Him to empower you to turn from sin.