James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

I have started praying each week with three girlfriends.  Our intent is to humbly pray for our husbands, children, and selves.  Stormie Omartian’s book, The Power of a Praying Wife, has been our guide, and we intend to look at The Power of a Praying Parent, also by Stormie.  It has been eye-opening to realize that the things I struggle with are common with other women as well.  Many times we are ashamed to admit problems or sins, only to realize that other Christians have compassion, wisdom, and victory over similar circumstances.

I recently found out that Michael Guglilmucci, a Hillsongs song writer who claimed to have a miraculous healing from terminal cancer, was actually deceiving people.  He finally admitted that he never had cancer, and that he had fabricated a false cancer diagnosis to divert people from finding out about his addiction to pornography.  He said that he had lived in a Christian environment his whole life and could never reveal his true self.  Regretfully, thousands of people around the globe have been shocked, betrayed, and enraged by Michael’s façade. 

Let us as Christians not be afraid to discuss our failures and struggles with each other.  Let’s make our church a safe place for true friendship.  In this way, the enemy can’t use shame, guilt, and isolation to keep us enslaved to guilt and lies.  Jesus gives us victory.  Let’s not be afraid to admit when we fail.  Perhaps if Michael Guglilmucci had been able to confess his sin of pornography when it first began to ensnare him, the damage would not have been quite as great.

Joy Oaks