True Confession is Good for Body and Soul

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. (James 5:16)

True confession: I struggle with my weight.

Or maybe I should be really honest and say that I struggle with gluttony and a lack of self-discipline. I enjoy food, and I find every excuse possible not to exercise regularly. That’s a potentially deadly combination because I, as a writer, lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle.

There—now you know the real me.

Being accountable

Thankfully the Holy Spirit has been working in this area of my life. About six weeks ago, I found an accountability partner who shares my desire for weight loss and overall health improvement. Every week we report our successes and failures in the food and exercise department over the past seven days. We also tell the other what our weight is that day. And we recognize that we need God’s strength to achieve our health goals.

Being honest with someone about my struggle has helped me stay on track. The weight is steadily coming off, and I feel better than I’ve felt in years. I have every reason to believe I’m going to taste success (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one!), and I credit that largely to the freedom I’ve found in being brutally honest with another woman who’s honest in return.

Victory over our sins

Scripture tells us that we can find victory over our sins by confessing them to another person and praying for each other.

Satan knows this is true and he doesn’t want it to happen, so he feeds us a lie:

“Don’t tell anyone about your struggle with _____________. If others find out, they’ll lose respect for you.”

In reality, the opposite is true. People gain respect for those who are honest and transparent. And when we admit our faults, others feel free to do the same. Then we can share mutual encouragement and support as we work through whatever our struggle is.