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.”

We all want a powerful and effective prayer life, don’t we?  I know that I do, but the way to get to that point is to have a pure heart.  God is talking to us about confession, and confession of what we are doing wrong.  I don’t know about you, but I am not big on letting others know where I struggle but at the same point I want to have a pure heart before God.

I really struggle with pride in my life.  I want to be up front, I want people to recognize me, I want to be a part of those special moments with people, I want the accolades and I want, and I want and I want.  If you haven’t noticed, it is a lot about me.  I am tired of it being about me and not more about God.  I want it to be Thy kingdom come, rather than My kingdom come.  God is doing somethings in me over the past 6 months and I am ready to live out a life of confession cause I am sick of living a life of concealment.  Andy Stanley said this…

“The reason you fear the consequences of confession is because you’ve yet to realize the consequences of concealment.”

I am tired of living with the consequences of concealment.  I want to live in the freedom that comes with confession.  I don’t want to be prideful and jealous when I don’t get the attention, in fact I don’t want the attention, I want it to go to the one who is deserving of it all, Jesus Christ.

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

What really struck me about this verse was the word DWELL.  In the Webster’s dictionary it means: to live as a resident.  I started to think about my relationship with God and am I a resident of a consistent time with God.  The thing that happens when I am dwelling with God is that I am right there with him, following (hence why I am in His shadow) but yet protected because he is making the way for me, leading out in front.

I find it so easy to be a nomad in my relationship with God.  There are times when I dwell with him but then all of a sudden I will find myself out wandering around looking at other places to be my shelter or residence.  I don’t know why I have this tendency but I do.  I want this year to be the year where I take up permanent residence in God’s house, where I don’t wander out looking for other places to rest or other people to follow.  This is the year where I believe each of us needs to establish our residence with His.