One of the most important principles to learn and implement in our lives is that honesty liberates us.
I like the way author Steve Brown once stated this principle: “Demons die in the light!” Remember how when you were a kid going to bed and seeing monsters in the darkness of your bedroom? What made the demons disappear? Turning on the light!
Most of us outgrow imagining monsters in the dark, but very few of us can honestly say we have no secrets hidden in the recesses of our heart.
After Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, there were some there who harbored a great deal of animosity toward him. Satan wanted to use this anger to destroy Paul’s ministry in Corinth, but Paul, knowing this, wrote a second letter in which he honestly shared not only the good things in his ministry, but the worst as well: “We should like you to know something of the trouble we went through in Asia. At that time we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).
Why did Paul share his troubles? Many Christians feel that’s the last thing you should do … after all, aren’t you supposed to put up a good front as an example for others? Yes, if you want to model hypocrisy and teach people to fake it!
Many of us have decided that we must pretend that everything is OK in our lives, but herein lies a great danger: The things we keep inside and deny to others begin to control us.
Fredrich Buechner, in his book “Telling Secrets,” talks about his father’s suicide and his daughter’s anorexia, two of his family’s unspoken tragedies. He said something very profound – that when we tell our secrets, they lose much of their power over us. This echoes what God tells us in James 5:16, “Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
Another key principle of life flows from our willingness to admit our shortcomings: God’s power in my life is made complete in my weakness. Paul learned this the hard way. In 2 Corinthians 12 he talks about how God allowed him to experience pain in order to teach him that life is to be lived in God’s grace rather than in the power of his own strengths and abilities. Once he learned that lesson, he said, “Now I take my limitations in stride; I am glad to have my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, accidents, opposition and bad breaks. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Ever notice how the Bible rarely says what you think it will say? After all, doesn’t the Bible say somewhere that “God helps those who help themselves?” No, it doesn’t. What it says is that God helps those who can’t help themselves and admit it. You and I need to admit our weaknesses to God, ourselves and others.
I’m weak in so many areas that it would take pages of newspaper print to just list them! How about you?
When we know and admit we are weak and far from perfect, when we know there is nothing in us to commend ourselves to God, when we are convinced that we have so many weaknesses that there is no way God could use us … we need to get ready, because we’re exactly the kind of person God will use!
Henry Harris is lead pastor of Rolling Hills Community Church, 330 Tres Pinos Road in Hollister. If you have questions or comments, please visit the church Web site at www.rollinghillsfamily.com, e-mail pa*********@****************ly.com or call (831) 636-5353.
