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I Have a Confession To Make
Ever notice how God calls us to serve at times that really challenge us? He doesn’t typically call us when we have a lot of free time on our hands or call us to serve in a way that we foresaw as one of our strengths and would have easily picked out such a task anyway. His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Otherwise we could point to how we did something instead of giving all the credit to God. We can’t do what he asks us to do without his hand at work in us. This in turn allows all the glory to be given to him. I had just such one of these experiences recently.
I received this email from Chris Case that asked if I would be interested in leading the monthly Prayer Gathering for May that was to be coming up in about two weeks. I have to confess that my first thought was "No thanks." The excuses in my mind piled up. "I am just way too busy right now," "I need much more time to prepare for this,’ "We have some great prayer warriors at Cumberland and this is just not my gift," etc, etc. However, the more I tried to build up the case for saying no, the more I felt God moving me to say yes. It’s pretty hard to say no to God, and well, you know how the rest of the story goes right? You wrestle with God (He’s pretty good at the wrestling thing). You then say yes to God after being beaten fair and square. He takes care of all the details even though you naturally want to fret about them and stress out, in the end ultimately he is glorified… So let me tell you some of the details of how God moved during this time.
I prayed about leading the Prayer Gathering (wrestled very hard), I went to Alan and talked about what I was wrestling with and after awhile there ultimately were no more no’s to be reckoned with, just a yes standing there as I was worn out from the wrestling. Then some good old- fashioned spiritual warfare flared up as the battle was joined by the other side. I faced several battles at work and at home. I was stressed and even fought huge traffic jams just trying to make it to church on the night of the Prayer Gathering. I was tested. This would not be a simple victory without a fight. God would be glorified.
I decided to lead the prayer time using the ACTS prayer format (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication). I allocated about 25-30 minutes per section, except for the Confession period where I set aside 2-3 minutes. For the Confession portion we read from the Common Book of Prayer, the Prayer of Confession, just as Jeff Taylor had prayed through during the Sunday before which was awesome and I wanted to replay it during our time together. I encouraged everyone to admit their sins to God silently during a few moments of quiet.
"Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen."
And then God moved. Instead of a few quiet minutes, with everyone praying silently their confessions to God, someone confessed out loud, then another, and another all the way around the room confessions were prayed out loud. It was so powerful and totally unexpected.
I had my agenda for the evening, but then once the Prayer Gathering started, God entered into the room and established his. Instead of just a few minutes of silent confession we prayed out loud for half an hour confessing our sins to each other. I didn’t want it to end as it was so refreshing and cleansing as each time a person confessed I made the same confession in my heart as they all applied to me as well. Our human frailties and weaknesses were confessed. We repented of our sins as we prayed for God’s forgiveness. There was laughter at several points as the confessions struck so close to home and were prayed with such candor that we recognized the same sin in our lives. And so we… laughed.
There was healing that night as we obeyed James 5:16 by confessing our sins to each other and praying for each other in the presence of our Creator.
Our next Prayer Gathering takes place on June 2nd. I encourage you to come join us to be in the presence of God and sit in His grace. If you want to confess out loud your sins to God you will be in good company!
I was there and totally agree. It was a good cleansing time. I was considering going home after a meeting I had attended, I was tired, I worked all day, my foot hurt, my back hurt. The thing is all that stuff was about me. I knew prayer time would be a good time of focusing on God and praying with others. I knew it was where I needed to be because I didn’t want to be there. I was greatful for the ACTS formate. It was just what I needed. I must confess I did leave early before the supplication section. I however met with God and other believers that night. Thanks for leading Chuck
Oh, Chuck, how good it is to not only be real with God, but to be real at church. There was no facade, no masks, no politically correct prayers that night – just honest confessions one to another. God reavealed “sin in the camp” and we, laymen and leaders, confessed. It created a closer bond between us. Your willingness to say yes to God opened that door. Thanks.