Cartoon by Sam Torode

I recently reached a pivotal step with the men’s support group that I meet with and wanted to share with you all how the Lord is working through it to bring healing.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I meet with a Christian “12-step group” that deals with various compulsive behaviors and sins against God. The program operates using materials from Celebrate Recovery and takes an entire year, which is a pretty serious commitment of time to all the folks involved. I was a bit skeptical since I was looking for more of a quick fix, but it is really starting to pay off.

We cover the “12 steps” through 8 principles in the Bible. We are at principle #4, which involves sharing a list of every bad thing we’ve ever done with our sponsor. Yeah, that’s right - everything I just shared my list yesterday and wanted to tell you all about it. At first I was none too happy to hear that this step was part of the process, and questioned whether it was necessary. I then learned that the principle of confession of sins to another believer is expressly given to followers of Christ in the Bible.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16 (NIV)

Isn’t it enough to just confess to God?

Why does God give us this instruction through James? Note the verse says that we will be healed, rather than saying it leads to forgiveness - that part was taken care of when we accept Jesus Christ as our savior.

When we confess our sins to God, we may be immediately forgiven, but when do we forgive ourselves and accept what God has already done? It is quite common for people to fear that their past sins would be uncovered by someone else. What happens is that we end up with a secret between us and satan. The enemy is only too happy to constantly remind us of these sins even though we have no condemnation in Christ.

When we share our sins with a trusted person, the fears are released. We articulate what we did and get it out in the open. We then can not justify or minimize the sins, and we can not build them up to be more than what really happened. It’s all out there. When we see that our sponsor does not run screaming out of the room or reaches for the phone to call the cops, we see a small taste of what God has been telling us. The sin has been committed and it has been washed away by Jesus’ blood. God no longer hold that against us.

I first experienced confession of sins to another person in the Catholic Church where confession is made to a priest. I always gave Catholism a hard time about this since I wasn’t aware of the verse in James. Of course then the church took the command given in the Bible and added an artificial dose of ritualistic baloney when the priest would give us a list of rote prayers that would then “seal our forgiveness” like saying, “OK, say 20 ‘Our Fathers’, 25 ‘Hail Marys’, and 5 ‘Hail Holy Queens’ and we’ll see you in a couple months.” I still have questions about that whole purgatory bit too, but I’m supposed to be apologizing here. So, I guess I’m saying a 1/2 “My Bad,” to the Vatican.

“Did You Really Include EVERYTHING?”

Yes, I did include every bad thing I could think of. It took around 2 & 1/2 hours of me talking non-stop as I read through a list that was 20-something typed pages with some additional improptu narratives. I spent a couple months compiling the list, so it is pretty thorough. Of course there are a few sins that will slip past, but perfection with the list isn’t really the point.

At first I considered leaving out a couple things, but I started feeling that pressure of the Holy Spirit. Do you know what I’m talking about? I didn’t start recognizing it until the last couple years. If we are sincere when we ask God to change our lives to follow his will, He truly does guide us via the Holy Spirit as to what to do in tempting situations. Of course whether I listen is another story, but I can think of a couple situations in the last couple years involving pirated software, tax deductions, and this instance with THE LIST, where God really impressed upon me that the course of action I was going to take would be the wrong one.

Do you know how to recognize the guidance of God in those times? If you don’t, just pray for God’s wisdom and direction, and be truly willing to make the changes. Don’t worry, God’s Changes are always good for us, and He doesn’t heap everything on us all at once. Remember Matthew 11:30, where Jesus tells man about servantude to the Lord.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

That’s not to say that making the decision to follow God’s direction for a given circumstance is easy. I fought the idea that I would hold back some of my sins for the entire time I was composing the list. Fortunately I had a couple decisions under my belt where I just made the decision to follow God. Once I was resolute in my decision, the oppression seemed to immediately lift.

I don’t know whether that feeling of oppression was my flesh and sinful nature rebelling against God, whether the feeling was the Holy Spirit stirring up discomfort so I would recognize disobedience against God. I guess it really doesn’t matter so long as the result was that the truth came out.

The Results from Confessing My Sins

It is just over 24 hours later, and my heart definitely feels lighter. I’m not looking for feelings as confimation, becaus they can be fickle, but something is different. I can’t quite put my finger on it yet. I do know that God’s peace has been resting on me. I am looking foward to seeing what other changes come from it.

You see, God doesn’t need a program like Celebrate Recovery to heal us. He could take it all away in an instant, and does so in certain situations. Other times God wants us to go through a process with him. We learn lessons along the way that prevent future problems, and come to a closer relationship with him in the process.

God has it all figured out. Maybe one day I’ll remember that

Couple Notes of Caution

If you decide to try open confession of sins, be careful who you share your list with. This is nothing to be casual with whatsoever. Try to do this step of recovery as part of a guided program, which builds in some accountability. Trying to do it on your own leaves out some of the important principles before and after. For example, a later principle is to offer to make amends to all we’ve harmed. Let’s say we sinned against our best friend, but then chose that person to give our list to. They may not listen very well after we get to the part about them. Considering cases like these, it’s best to select a person who has been through the recovery process and can help with the other steps.

Find out More About Celebrate Recovery

Celebrate Recovery is for much more than alcoholics and drug addicts. Actually, the programs break people up into various groups according to their struggles so we receive the support of others like us. A couple of the areas covered are:

• Anger
• Fear
• Chemical Dependency
• Co-dependency
• Sexual Addictions
• Eating Disorders
• Every other hurt, habit, or hang-up we could imagine.

It takes a great deal of humility to come to one of these things, but you will be so happy you came. Besides, there is usually some good food along with it (as with most Christian functions). It is a commitment of time, though and should be taken seriously. Our group started with around 12-14 people. Now there are only 4 or 5 of us that show up. Take strength in knowing that If you accept the challenge, God will definitely meet you much more than half-way and bless your life through it.

You can contact the organization of Celebrate Recovery or contact churches in your area to see who is using the program. I highly recommend it!

Any experiences with 12 step Christian recovery groups of any kind? Questions about Celebrate Recovery? Feel free to discuss in the comment section below.

Have a blessed day!

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