“Count it all joy, my brother, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you now that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.”

James 1: 2-4

“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

My friends, I must confess this has been a rough year.

Like Peter, God has allowed a sifting in my life over the past year that left confusion, doubt, disbelief, and a multitude of other struggles in its wake. Many times my prayer was simply,

“Lord, be real to me today.”  

I’ll never forget the day after confessing my struggles to a friend, knowing she would be in prayer with me, how God showed up for me. Most days were difficult to get through without being exhausted, but that day, God was truly amazing! For the first time in months, there was a peace in my heart that hadn’t been there in months and an ability to see Him move during the day. Praise the Lord, did Jesus show up that day!

I can’t say it’s been easy every day since then or that my sifting is completed yet, but God is good and will continue to complete His good work.

Let me make sense of my ramblings: My dear friends,

“Confession is good for the soul.”

We often, and rightly so, teach about confessing our sin to God, but how much we miss out on the fellowship, blessing, and encouragement from God when we refuse to confess our struggles and act as if nothing is wrong. Through the Gospels we see how Jesus meant to be a part of our lives and for us to be a part of others lives’ as well. He puts people in our lives to encourage us and to lift us up in prayer when we don’t know how.

I’m not sure what your struggle is today, but He is not afraid of it and is more than capable of dealing with all that we struggle with each day.

“That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”

2 Tim 1:12

Erica Farmer