When I converted to Catholicism, my mom told me why we confess our sins. She quoted James 5:16, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”
As a teen, I insisted it was better to confess sins directly to God than embarrassing myself on a regular basis. I knew my mom was speaking truth because I had a hard time forgiving myself after repenting in the silence of my heart, but I didn’t understand how telling a priest could completely set me free.
I had heard about the slavery of sin and how Jesus came to set us free, but I had no clue the bondage of sin could be as real as shame and guilt. I soon realized that having a negative image of oneself is a form of abuse. There is a battlefield in our minds and we must fight to protect our dignity. The victory of the battle raging inside of us is only possible with intervention. We must draw from God’s strength and reject the lies that deny us of our self worth.
This poem shows that God is always our warrior ready to defend and restore us if we just ask.
My Warrior & God.
You hold me above the storms of life
In your arms I am enthroned.
Like a princess I sit in the hands of a King
Though He is so much more.
So gently You keep me from the roaring waves
And sometimes when I fall,
You roar above the mighty waves until they finally part.
Down at the ocean floor I sit and sometimes far beyond,
No where on earth is beyond Your control,
So when I call You pick me up.
When I feel hopeless, when I doubt,
I return to You with a heavy heart.
You lighten my load and take the fears I casts,
So they no longer have a strong hold.
When I forget to return to You,
You roar above the sea waiting for my call.
As I fight to stay above these waves
Ignoring my warrior and my God!
God is always waiting for us to call on Him. He is our warrior, ready to help and come to our rescue. Sometimes we ignore God’s promise of salvation because we’d rather ignore our sins than deal with the shame. Sometimes we don’t see that we are drowning or we don’t understand how we can be saved from that “Catholic guilt”. We must look into ourselves and call out the sin that is keeping us from reconciling with God; pride. Continue reading “Confession: True Rescue from Bondage”
Grace Healings 