"NOT MY FAULT!"

What if it is my fault?

What are you going to do if I admit it is my fault? How will you react to me if I admit to doing something wrong? Just think about the last time our friend or spouse admitted to doing something wrong or maybe they just made a mistake. How did you respond to their admitting it and apology? Let's read a passage that talks about this very situation that you and I experience;

James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

This sounds so awesome when we read it from the book of James, but why don't people actually do this in the home, church or the community today? When was the last time that you or I admitted to doing something wrong? I know that it may sound kind of far fetched, but it is when we are willing to do this that we can begin to heal. Healing takes place in the soul, spirit and mind when we can admit our faults to another and not only to admit, but also to know that they are willing to pray for us. If we are looking for someone else to take that first step up to the plate and take the blame, you may be waiting for quite a while in this time that we live. Why is it so hard for us to admit something to another person? Well, let's look back at the passage we read and focus on the second part of that verse.

James 5:16... The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

If I am going to confess a fault to someone else, wouldn't I feel better if I knew they would offer to pray for me? Actually, I would feel even better if I knew they would offer to pray WITH me right then and there! Isn't that what we all really need as brothers and sisters in Christ? We do need someone to pray with us effectually and fervently! Then we also need for that person to be a righteous man, so that we can see our life radically changed by God.

If a person is living right and a child of God, he is a righteous man. So, what James is telling us is to find someone like this and share our faults and weaknesses so that he or she can pray for us. Now, let's take a look again at the matter of admitting a fault to another. How will we respond when someone points out our fault or wait! Better still, how will we respond when someone comes and tells us about their own faults? When they expose their dirty laundry, their shameful habit or their own bitterness or deceit; how will you respond? It's so easy for us to get the big head and feel like we are privy to their faults because we have no faults of our own, but think again. Let's look at another passage to see what God says about this;

Matthew 6:14,15 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

This passage was the very next thing that Jesus told his apostles following the teaching of the Lord's Prayer. We all have probably learned the Lord's Prayer at some time in our lives. It starts out,"Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done...", but most of us don't know the very next thing that Jesus taught His apostles when He finished teaching them this prayer!
I admit, I didn't realize this was taught by Jesus to His apostles either, but the passage that you just read from Matthew 6:14-15 is what Matthew records next that Jesus taught His apostles.

It was so important that they not get the prideful upon completion of His teaching on prayer! It was so important that they learn to forgive just as they were to learn about being forgiven by their heavenly Father. Isn't it awesome to know God forgives you and I? Well, it's so important to read the whole verse! "If ye forgive men..." and "But if ye forgive not men...". If you think you are confessing your faults to God alone and you don't need to worry about forgiving anyone else's faults, you had better think again! This could be the very reason that the healing of your heart,soul and mind are not being experienced in your life.

It has kept me from experiencing this healing as well in my past, but I will never forget the day when this message of hope was revealed to me and I laid my pride and pain aside and forgave the trespasses of others so that I could begin to heal. I was also able to share this with those who could pray for me and pray for those who had trespassed against me. An amazing thing happened! I felt the weight lifted from my back that I had carried for so long and my heart began to heal! I had experienced exactly what Jesus had taught His disciples when He showed them how to pray that day.

There was once a man who had been shopping and upon arriving home he parked his car at the curb by the street light. He had his arms loaded with all kinds of nice things that he was taking into his house, but just as he unlocked his door and reached for the light, he dropped his keys.
The strange thing was that when he flipped the switch the lights didn't come on; so he began to grope around on the floor looking for the keys to the door. After looking for a few minutes, he looked out side at the bright street light and decided to go out there and look in the grass. As he was looking through the grass his neighbor came walking by and asked him,"What are you looking for?" and he replied,"My keys!". So the neighbor decided to give him a hand and try to help him solve his problem so he began to crawl around on the ground under the light as well looking for the lost keys. After about fifteen minutes, the neighbor asked the man,"Do you remember where you were when you dropped your keys?". He proceeded to tell him that he was just inside the door of his house when he dropped them. Suddenly the neighbor looked up and asked him, "Why in the world are you looking outside?". That's when the man told his neighbor, "I couldn't see in the house because the lights weren't working, so I decided to go outside where I could see."

I know it doesn't make any sense at all, but isn't that how we often look at problems in our lives? We tend to go and looking all around us for the source of our problems. We usually place blame for anything going wrong in our lives in the people that are closest to us.

It's hard to look inside of ourselves and to see if we have anything wrong there because we don't really want to shine a light on our own faults, but that's exactly what we need to do before we can begin to heal. Then we can also begin to pray for the healing of those brothers, sisters and friends who come to us in need of prayer. Let's take the time to look inside our own hearts,souls and minds.

We must confess, but we must also forgive to experience the healing that Jesus promises to the man who does what is right.