Normally we associate this expression ”peace through strength” with international diplomacy. Being a child of the 80s, I associate it with Ronald Reagan and now Donald Trump has come to promote it as an international-relations principle as well. There is a Latin phrase: “Si vis pacem, para bellum:” if you want peace, prepare for war.
Here, I wish to use the idea in relationship to our struggles as individual Christians. In James 5:16, the Lord’s brother wrote: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” How do you think James felt as he grew up with a brother who literally “knew everything!”? How do you think James felt as he grew up with a brother who “never did anything wrong!”? James knew something about seeing his flaws more clearly as they were reflected in the perfect nature, character, and mannerisms of his unique brother. No wonder he didn’t believe in Him before the resurrection!
Confess your sins to one another. It’s not just teenagers who allow themselves to slide down a slippery slope. We endure an unhappy life or unhappy experiences and we feel guilty about it. Things just don’t measure up to our expectations. So we feel guilty, like we haven’t used God’s resources as we should or we have wasted opportunities that we know God has set before us. So we feel guilt.
The guilt then slides into depression as we can’t seem to pull ourselves out of our “funk.” We often think that if we were more mature, more faithful, maybe if we prayed more or read our Bible more, we would be stronger and we won’t have such problems.
So in addition to guilt and depression, we slide further down into a pit of anger – at ourselves and maybe even at God because we feel like we just can’t do the right things. We can not get control of our lives. Like Charlie Brown in the Thanksgiving special when he gets off the phone with Peppermint Patty, he laments, “I feel like I’m losing control of the world!”
Then we are afraid to share our struggles with fellow Christians, for some reason thinking apparently that we are the only ones in the world who struggle with “x” problem. Or, maybe if we confess our faults to one another we wonder what the other person will think of us. It is a common struggle. James tells us, however, that we should confess our faults to one another and pray for one another because the “effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
We can find strength from confessing to one another and praying for one another. And through that strength comes peace of mind.
Paul Holland
